Amazon Left James Bond Fans Furious With A Controversial Promotional Decision

Bullying works, folks. Ever since the moment that Amazon completed its purchase of MGM back in 2022, fans have waited with baited breath to see how one of the biggest and most powerful corporate entities in the world might meddle with the beloved James Bond franchise. Those fears only increased with the shocking news earlier this year that longtime series custodians Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson were stepping back from their producing roles, handing complete creative control over to Amazon to figure out the overall direction of the IP as they see fit. While most of us were worried about how this could affect the big-screen product in the years to come, apparently we should've been paying closer attention to the pre-existing titles that now call Prime Video their streaming home.

Let's just say the Bond fanbase has been shaken and stirred. In a somewhat bizarre turn of events, as reported by Deadline, fans noticed that various artwork promoting several Bond movies on Prime Video U.K. had been quietly tampered with. To celebrate this past "James Bond Day" on October 5, 2025, the streamer decided to showcase posters from productions such as "Dr. No," "Goldeneye," "A View To A Kill," and even recent ones such as "Spectre" ... but with clunky and poorly-photoshopped alterations, removing any hint of firearms from each image. This was far from an isolated incident, as users on social media quickly began circulating screenshots proving the lengths that the streaming service went to in order to hide any visible weapons.

As of the time of publishing, Prime Video has since removed these posters altogether as a result of the backlash and replaced them with more generic stills from each movie — none of which feature any guns, either.

Is the future of James Bond doomed to a gun-less, watered-down, and sanitized fate? That's the main concern among many online following this little controversy. It can't possibly be a good sign that a soulless corporation immediately tried to alter and manipulate promotional artwork from prior movies as they saw fit. What's stopping Amazon from taking a similar approach now that they have the final say on the actual movies to come? Is the super-suave spy we all know and love about to get a bit of a makeover?

That might be a bit hasty for many well-founded reasons, even though it's worth keeping a close eye on any further nonsense that the studio may attempt to pull. For one thing, it's safe to say that you don't hire Denis Villeneuve of all filmmakers in the hopes of debuting a blockbuster with all of its rough edges sanded off. In much of his previous work, from "Sicario" to "Blade Runner 2049" to the "Dune" movies, he has shown a tendency to go there and depict some seriously dark subject matter — regardless of whether that may have been the most commercial-friendly way to go. For another, well, even Amazon has to know that Bond fans are a notoriously passionate bunch. If they're prone to make a fuss over posters, it's doubtful the company would want to risk anything more extreme once production begins in earnest on their upcoming movie.

As for why the guns were removed, the most likely explanation is that images containing firearms are flagged as "sensitive content" by some social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Therefore, if product pages for James Bond movies feature images with guns, then a post sharing those links could be hidden from audiences.

If there's any major takeaway here, it's that this is yet another example of why streaming services are, by their very nature, impermanent. While they can do whatever they like with their digital licenses, Amazon can't retroactively mess with our box sets. Score another point for physical media collectors!