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Comment by saucymew | Hacker News Reader

Everyone's got a number they can't refuse...

Defenders will say Bond deserves a modern update beyond the Daniel Craig era.

But if I'm reading the tea leaves from Lord of the Rings, I am not bullish on Amazon's MCU-ification of the Bond franchise.

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The Daniel Craig era was a modern update, though, so those defenders won't really be taking history into account. Not that the Broccolis never missed, but they were capable of moving with the times, and they did not blindly follow the money.

Amazon/Disney/Netflix/HBO move with the times by following the money, and by milking the reputation of respected brands and celebrities until they're dried out husks.

Yeah, I don't think people realize how many times the franchise has been updated over the years. I'm conservatively counting five times (marked with asterisks) but I think the number could be as high as seven. And then you've got to consider that they've tried to finish the character unsuccessfully even before No Time To Die with Never Say Never Again.

- Dr. No

- From Russia with Love

- Goldfinger

- Thunderball

- You Only Live Twice

*- On Her Majesty's Secret Service

- Diamonds Are Forever

*- Live and Let Die

- The Man with the Golden Gun

- The Spy Who Loved Me

- Moonraker

- For Your Eyes Only

*- Never Say Never Again

- Octopussy

- A View to a Kill

*- The Living Daylights

- Licence to Kill

*- GoldenEye

- Tomorrow Never Dies

- The World Is Not Enough

- Die Another Day

*- Casino Royale

- Quantum of Solace

- Skyfall

- Spectre

- No Time to Die

Never Say Never Again probably shouldn't be used as an example of "the franchise". It wasn't produced by Eon or the Broccoli family as someone else owned the rights to that particular story.

> and by milking the reputation of respected brands and celebrities until they're dried out husks.

Seems reasonable to me. The big question is why other creators are not working on creating new brands. There are more heroes, superheroes, super villains created nowadays. This is not some utility services which has to be mature, tried and tested even if old and boring that must remain in use.

No one's buying into that, it's too risky - supposedly. And it's not my field, but I have to think that writers coming up in this media environment have the formulas beaten into them from the start.

I'm struggling to think of truly original movie/TV created in the last 10 years that has stuck around . Maybe in TV there's a few, Severance comes to mind, but everything else is warmed over spy/supe/soap/horror/reality.

Even prestige dramas feel like they were designed to look and feel "important" without actually being important.

They are producing according to a small number of formulas because it's cheap, predictable, easy to make, easy to watch. Above all, we keep watching. Why would they take the risk of making something different?

Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek .... it feels like everything eventually devolves and runs into people or a situation where it doesn't seem like anyone has creative control / defined vision, and horrific writing and such decisions.

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