Barbara Broccoli & Michael G. Wilson Aren’t Leaving The Bond Franchise Anytime Soon

This week we got our first episode of the official James Bond podcast as the promotion continues for the upcoming 007 movie, No Time To Die.

It is must-listen for any Bond fan as it’s a fantastic insight to the final Daniel Craig adventure with interviews with the stars like Craig and Lashana Lynch, director Cary Joji Fukunaga and the head bosses Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.

Furthermore, we got to hear snippets of Hans Zimmers score, and it sounds incredible. I predict it’ll be the best Bond soundtrack ever.

During the first episode, wonderfully hosted by the UK’s top film critics and journalists James King, revealed things that we knew that this is Craig’s final and every movie in this era will tie-up in NTTD.

However, the one thing I’ve been wondering that not only is No Time To Die the end of the Craig era, it could also be the perfect moment for Broccoli and Wilson to step aside and let someone else take the reigns.

As it would be 60 years of Bond under the Broccoli name and Craig is done. All the worries of reimagining for a new era (hopefully lead by Henry Golding) will be with producers and execs at Warner Brothers or Universal (these will be the likely homes for Bond).

Listening to the podcast and hearing the producers and more importantly their dad Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and the advice he gave to them that clinched it for me they’re not going anywhere.

“Don’t let other people fuck it up.”

Broccoli went on to add that they [her and Michael] oversee every detail in the films like their old man and producing/ business partner Harry Saltzman did starting with Dr. No in 1962.

Meanwhile, she admits she feels the weight and pressure of keeping the legacy alive and takes the responsibility seriously and feels that statement is saying don’t let anyone who doesn’t see the long-term future of the franchise make the mistakes, but they can as they’ll probably learn from them.

As they did with Die Another Day, it was too over the top. They returned to a more grounded, realistic world for Casino Royale.

All of this points to me that Bond, while still believing it will be sold to a studio in the near future, will always be in the hands of the Broccoli/Wilson family. I still see Michael stepping down first with his son David as his replacement and continue to learn under the stewardship of Barbara before taking full control at the head of the table.