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When Bob Iger took over Disney in 2005, he quickly put together a list of potential acquisitions. One of the iconic franchises on his list was James Bond, which was still owned by the Broccoli family (and has since been acquired by Amazon). I’ll say upfront that I’m not a Disney hater by any means, but I’m really glad this was a deal Iger couldn’t get done. There is really one specific reason why: Disney overexposes everything.
Marvel, Star Wars, and Bond, James Bond
I’m not going to get into the whole history of Disney and where it was as a company before Iger was named CEO in 2005, but let’s just say, according to some within the company, there was a malaise internally. Iger set out to change that with a series of acquisitions, most notably the first deal he made, buying Pixar in 2006. His list was longer. As Iger recently told the Financial Times:
We put together a list of acquisition targets. Marvel was one, Star Wars was another, James Bond was one. We had a list and I figured let’s just tick them off and buy them all.
Disney bought Marvel in 2009 and Lucasfilm (which encompasses Star Wars) in 2012. Bond was the only franchise on the list that Iger and Disney didn’t get their hands on. For me, this is a huge relief. As a huge fan of the James Bond movies, I’ve been worried about how Amazon would treat the iconic franchise, but I’m positive that Disney would have exploited it to the hilt.
Disney Does Too Much With Its Franchises
I’ve long argued that Disney made a huge misstep after the enormous success of Avengers: Endgame. I firmly believe that they should have taken a quick breather and then reset the MCU completely. Instead, they doubled down and kept pumping out two or three movies a year, while adding a seemingly endless amount of streaming content, all of which is available with a Disney+ subscription, of course.
What they did was way overexpose the whole MCU franchise. There were new movies and shows constantly. It got overwhelming for many fans, including me. They’ve done pretty much the same thing with Star Wars since purchasing Lucasfilm. They have slowed down on both recently, finally recognizing the overexposure. I’m really glad this didn’t happen with James Bond. Imagine James Bond the Movie! James Bond the TV Show! James Bond the Roller Coaster! James Bond the lunchbox! You get my point.
While I’m definitely frustrated that James Bond 26 is taking so long (maybe we’ll see it in 2028?), I’d much rather be waiting for what is hopefully a great movie than being inundated with James Bond everywhere, watering down the brand, and leaving me as frustrated as I have been with recent MCU and Star Wars projects.
