Which part?
Donât think they should try to repeat the story arc idea. I think they need to leave that as a one off thing they did with DC and go back to the individual missions/stories. With these movies when that individual story is done, itâs done, everyone leaves the theatre happy. But if you know thereâs more to the story, and then also have to wait 3-4 years for the sequel to come out⌠I donât think thatâs a good plan.
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Bamigboyeâs article doesnât reveal much that wasnât already discussed here or elsewhere, especially re Elba and others who might take on the role. For somebody supposedly having his sources itâs frightfully banal. Having heard ârumoursâ about an unnamed candidateâŚis about on par with rehashing a couple of threads from the last two years, hardly substantial enough to justify an insider column.
The part about Eon supposedly going for a longer, preconceived story, now thatâs much more interesting. On the surface itâs against Eonâs modus operandi of six decades. Even the last five films, the most profitable streak of the series supposedly, only managed to tell a longer arc by accident and retcon.
So the usual procedure one might expect would be taking one step at a time yet again.
But pitching a longer arc with a detailed sequence of productions - any length between tree and five might be possible here - would be a very good opening in talks with Amazon. A tighter schedule and higher frequency would already be a big improvement over the last few years and come closer to âseriesâ as Amazon understands it. Also it might deflect calls for branching out into streaming tv territory.
If true this would be the main takeaway from this article. As for how to realise this: Apparently Eon offered every director in recent years a chance to a comeback into the directorâs chair. Fukunaga no doubt delivered with NO TIME TO DIE and I wouldnât be surprised if Eon wanted him back again. Heâs already experienced with Bond and streaming series, so Amazon probably wouldnât disagree with him - and Fukunaga might be up for a couple of films in a row, too.
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Especially given they were first talking to him about a Bond 25 that would be introducing a new Bond.
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The major risk with another 5 film arc is whether the next actor will have a really great debut.
If he underperforms or even flops the carefully planned out arc would have to be dropped, just to restart again with the replacement?
I guess therefore that the next film will only slightly hint at future plots. Another CR like ending would be extremely courageous.
Then again, what is EON if not that?
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There will almost certainly be some kind of multi-film story arc for the new Bond to take on. Itâs what pretty much the rest of the competition is doing, so EON will no doubt follow suit. Films are just as much about world building these days as they are about actual storytelling, which is a big part of why the movies are just so incredibly long nowadays.
One would also have to wonder whether or not a standalone Bond film could even work in this day and age. We havenât had one in 20 years now, and the idea of films in a franchise being very much connected is a much larger deal now than it was back when Pierce Brosnan was parasurfing on a tsunami.
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Well, there was SKYFALL that was a quite detached affair from the previous two - and the two after. And without retcon it sits even better in the middle of Craigâs tenure in my view.
But agreed, the serial within the series is the new standard in mainstream entertainment productions today. Were RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK made today the first film would be entirely about the jungle sequence opening.
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All valid points. However an arc can be many things. Itâs possible to have each film be a unique mission while having recurring characters, themes and Bondâs personal growth act as as the cohesive through-line.
I also think weâre past the point where either movies or TV have a status quo that is upheld. Everything needs to constantly move forward, change and evolve.
True but we are in the fallow period where news is scarce and imagination runs wild.
That is certainly the danger with too much planning and a cycle weâve seen play out before. Everything from Universalâs Dark Universe, the DCEU and the Wizarding Worlds/ Fantastic Beasts have clearly had years of films planned out only to pull the plug or make significant changes when they didnât land with audiences as intended.
As long as they continue to produce the films one at a time then thereâll always be time to course correct. For example Bond 26 may set up a villain intended to be the next âBlofeldâ but if audiences donât embrace the character then they could easily be bumped off in Bond 27âs pre-title sequence and the series move in a different direction.
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Bond # 26: Another Way to Live
Scene 1:
Gunbarrel opens on Westminster bridge .Near the burning wreckage of a helicopter, Blofeld lay at Bondâs feet, urging him to âfinish it.â
Bond looks R towards Madeline, L towards M, then fires his PPK at Blofeldâs head.
Madeline recoils in shock and turns away. Bond turns towards M, holstering his PPK.
Cut to titles.
After titles begins an alternate-reality film with no Madeline, no Mathilde, no Heracles - just a stand-alone mission where Bond wins - and survives - in the end.
Cue daggers.
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Possible way to go - if EON wanted to tell audiences: donât bother to watch our movies, their stories might not matter in the long run. 
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They could join Disney and WB in saying if a minority tantrums enough theyâll get what they want.
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Itâs THE thing today, especially in politics.
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Did you ever see Next with Nicolas Cage, or Avengers Endgame? How about Terminator Genysis or Dark Fate?
NTTD is how Bondâs life would have gone if heâd turned right instead of left. Letâs see whether turning left would have served him any better.
Iâm assuming youâre joking. All but one of those are universally described as #### and the good one couldnât keep its own internal logic.
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Bond only makes one turn and moves on.
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An entire generation took this to heartâŚ
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You mean Bond has more emotional maturity than certain people?!?!?
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Ooh, Iâve got a good one:
We open at the end of NTTD with Bond preparing face his fiery death. Then everything freezes. Bond is approached by Felix (wearing a white suit and once again played by Jeffrey Wright). Felix proceeds to show Bond what the world would have been like if he had never existedâŚ
⌠of course in this timeline everything came back to Blofeld, who as we all know only turned to evil after young Bond stole his fatherâs affections. So it turns out in this time everyone is much happier and the world is generally better off.
Eon Productions Presents
Daniel Craig as Ian Flemingâs James Bond 007 in
Itâs a Wonderful Death!
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Is Jeffrey Wright playing Felix, or The Watcher from What If? It sounds like the latter to me.
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Ok, hereâs one (sorry for the length):
Gunbarrel reveals:
Steam⌠camera pans to reveal the steam rising from hot cocoa in a mug with a cat meme on it. The mug is raised to the lips of a young man, late 20s, in plaid pajamas. He sits in front of a laptop in the latest style with a pleasant, slightly vacant look on his face, gazing into the vague blue light of the screen.
The pleasant, vacant look turns harsh and rigid. The mug falls to the floor, cocoa splashing on the pajama pants of the man who seems not to notice. The man roboticlly retrives a slim winter vest from a closet and walks out of his posh apartment door.
âŚ
The meeting was late in starting. Rian was late. Heâs a bit of a nerd, but not normally late. The Ops Chief was getting annoyed because of the constant questions from General Blessingâs aide de camp about keeping the General to the daysâ schedule. Beyond that, the official party included a 2-star, two 1-stars and, two bird colonels who had schedules of their own. Rian was to give the brief on the emerging GreyTheta targeting system in development by the team also present for the meetingâŚnow 10 mins late.
âŚ
âPlease excuse my tardiness ladies and gentlemen, I do apologize!â
Rian was not dressed in a professional manner. The looks his audience gave him were three parts confusion and one part amazement. Did he over sleep? Why didnât he just call if he was going to be late? That could at least be understood. But why in the wide world would you show up in pajamâŚ
Rianâs vest burns then detonates destoying the room and everyone in it.
âŚ
Flames lead into the main title sequence
Eon Productions Presents
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
as Ian Flemmingâs James Bond 007 in
DIE AND LET KILL WITH LOVE FOREVER
âŚ
- Bond is sent on a mission to find the architect of an insidious array of servers designed to brainwash unsuspcting social media addicts transforming them into zombie footsoldiers
- these footsoldiers do the bidding of Beelze Busatan whoâs well-known private space company has secretly developed a massive rocket capable of attaching itself to an asteroid, guiding it into planet earth destoying all life as we know it because #reasons.
- the zombie footsoldiers recieve commands via their social media accounts to destroy any emerging targeting capability that may be able to detect the asteroid before it reaches itâs target
- Bond of course thwarts the plot, but dies in a successful attempt to blow up the rocket in space before it can set the asteroid on an irreversible course for earth.
- The closing song âAnother Way To Dieâ reminds the audience that the producers have an anything goes, weâll do whatever the crap we want thank you very much and youâll take it and like it attitude towards the series going forward.