It was a bombshell development that caught much of Hollywood — including, clearly, Oscar’s musical producers — by surprise. What could have compelled them to do it? After so many years of fiercely protecting their father’s business — EON Productions, the company that’s been in charge of 007 since the character first swaggered onto the screen in 1962 — why would they decide to unload it? And to Amazon, no less, the sprawling global syndicate run by the bald-headed, rocket-building billionaire Ernst Stavro Bezos? It makes even less sense than the plot of No Time to Die.

More pointedly, what does the sale mean for Bond’s future? Amazon, of course, had purchased MGM, Bond’s longtime home, in 2022 for $8.5 billion, mostly to get its hands on 007 IP and build it into a Marvel-style universe filled with bingeable TV spinoffs. The only things stopping them were Broccoli and Wilson, who had very different ideas for their father’s legacy, as well as a decades-long deal with MGM guaranteeing them creative dominion over all things Bond. But now that they’re out of the picture, Amazon can do whatever it wants. A TV show about Moneypenny? Why not. A prequel about Blofeld’s teenage years? Sure. More 007 game shows? Please no. But anything is possible. Amazon is now free to milk the franchise dry.

“Don’t let anybody else screw it up,” Cubby Broccoli warned his children before he died. “You can screw it up if you want to, but don’t let other people screw it up.”