James Bond Controversies That’ll Leave You Shaken, Not Stirred

The Controversy: No Time to Die (2021) broke with decades of tradition when they dramatically killed off James Bond at the end of the film. It was the first time Bond had been killed in any of the franchise’s 20+ Bond films, rather than simply handing over the reins to a new actor, and the move shocked fans and critics alike.

The Aftermath: Not all fans were happy with the decision. Many felt the decision to kill Bond was at the behest of Daniel Craig, who had made it clear for several years that he was ready to move on from the role. Although Bond’s death came as a surprise to many, craig explained that his bond was always going to go out this way:

I feel like I needed to end what I did on it. I would only be satisfied if I could walk away and there was nowhere else for that to go, that someone else would have to come along and invent something completely different. But also because I thought that was a good way for it to continue, and I knew that the only way to make it work was that it had to be based in love, and every time that we’ve gone emotionally into this, it pays back every time.

Producer Barbara Broccoli felt the ending was approprite , not only for Craig’s departure from the franchise, but to add a realistic element to the story:

It’s the ultimate sacrifice… it’s very appropriate because people in this line of work put themselves at risk all the time.

Despite the controversy, fueled mostly by shock factor, No Time to Die was the third-highest-grossing Bond film of all time, grossing $774 million

The Controversy: According to the wall street journal , a stalemate between Amazon MGM and EON Productions, who has held the film rights to James Bond from the beginning, is due to endless disputes surrounding spinoffs and overall creative direction. Former chief of Amazon Studios Roy Price had this to say about the arrangement:

If you own a Ferrari but don’t control where or if it goes, it’s frustrating. The Broccolis have provided the best example in Hollywood history of managing a character. But in today’s complex landscape, it makes sense for Amazon to get in the driver’s seat and control their own destiny.

As for Barbara Broccoli’s take on the disputes,she allegedly said  “These people are f*cking morons.” She and co-owner Michael G. Wilson appeared to be concerned the desired spinoffs would dilute the franchise their family had a hand in making for six decades.

The Aftermath: In February 2025, Amazon announced negotiations had been finalized and that Broccoli and Wilson had given over full creative rights to the streaming giant. The pair will reportedly remain co-owners of the Bond franchise.

In a statement, Broccoli confirmed her love for Bond but said she felt it was time to focus on other endeavors:

My life has been dedicated to maintaining and building upon the extraordinary legacy that was handed to Michael and me by our father, producer Cubby Broccoli. I have had the honor of working closely with four of the tremendously talented actors who have played 007 and thousands of wonderful artists within the industry. With the conclusion of No Time to Die and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects.

While things are moving forward with Bond 26, amazon ceo andy jassy  confirmed it will be a while before a movie hits theaters. He said that there is currently no script and “we don’t have a plan yet on what the next theme is going to be.”

The Controversy: Early James Bond films are notorious for their glorification of violence against women, be they “Bond girls” or supporting cast members.

Bond is consistently depicted as a sexually arrogant, hyper-masculine figure with little respect for the agency or personhood of female characters. Bond slaps his love interests in From Russia With Love (1963) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and threatens to break an innocent woman’s arm during questioning in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). He also blackmails a frightened nurse into sleeping with him to avoid losing her job in Thunderball (1965). In many of these instances, the women are portrayed as liking or mindlessly accepting the violence perpetrated towards them.

This fictional violence against women is made even worse by the fact that Sean Connery, who played Bond from 1962-1983, was apparently not above hitting women. In a 1987 interview with barbara walters  Connery reaffirmed earlier comments he’d made that hitting a woman was not “that bad”:

I don’t think it’s good, I don’t think it’s that bad. I think it depends entirely on the circumstances and if it merits it… If you have tried everything else, and, women are pretty good at this, they can’t leave it alone. They want to have the last word, and you give them the last word, but they’re not happy with the last word and want to say it again. Then, I think it’s absolutely right.

The Aftermath: Modern audiences struggle with the overt glorification of violence against women in Bond films. A number of authors and critics have studied the phenomenon through the lens of our modern society’s values, but seem unable to agree on the correct course of action. Some, like journalist ben child, have addressed Bond’s misogyny as deeply problematic:

[Bond] would be much easier to accept… if the dapper secret agent were not sold as the epitome of British suavity and a role model for young men.

However, some view the continued prevalence of sexism and violence towards women in thriller franchises like James Bond as a necessary conversation piece. According to author sophie hannah :

Ignoring brutality may sound like a good idea but it won’t make it go away – we should challenge prejudice, not celebrate it.

With regards to Connery’s personal beliefs on violence against women, the actor faced minimal consequences. In 2006 when a number of his remarks on the subject resurfaced, the Scottish National Party cancelled an appearance with the actor. Connery reportedly told friends at the time:

I don’t believe that any level of abuse of women is ever justified under any circumstances.

The Controversy: In Ian Fleming’s novel Goldfinger, James Bond’s love interest is a lesbian pilot named Pussy Galore. The suggestive name was purposefully designed for comedic effect ; however, its overtly graphic nature caused producers to worry if they’d be able to get the name past the censors at the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA).

The Aftermath: Although the name “Kitty Galore” was initially considered for the character, the producers ultimately decided to keep Fleming’s original vision intact. When the film was eventually screened for members of the royal family without a fuss, the MPAA found it unnecessary to change the name for American audiences.

Despite this, the MPAA refused to allow the franchise to use Galore’s full moniker on promotional materials. She was referred to instead as “Miss Galore.”

The Controversy: Before his novel Thunderball made it to stores, writer and James Bond creator Ian Fleming found himself in some legal hot water . Fleming had previously worked with screenwriter Jack Whittingham and filmmaker Kevin McClory to co-write a screenplay in an effort to launch Bond onto the big screen. Their initial project failed, but Fleming took the screenplay and wrote a new novel without crediting McClory and Whittingham for their contributions. Whittingham and McClory sued Fleming for film rights and compensation.

The Aftermath: Whittingham eventually dropped out of the lawsuit for financial reasons, but a court awarded McClory rights to TV and film adaptations of the book and £35,000. When Thunderball was released in 1965, McClory was listed as the sole producer.

After Fleming’s death, McClory remade the movie in 1983 as Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery in the role of Bond. The film, which would be Connery’s final appearance in the franchise, grossed $160 million at the box office .

The Controversy: In Goldfinger (1964), James Bond seduces Pussy Galore despite her being a lesbian and “immune” to his charms. It is heavily implied that doing so “turns” Galore straight. This was also intentional in the book. Ian Fleming explained in a private letter that Galore was only a temporary lesbian who simply “needed the right man to come along.”

The Aftermath: The controversy surrounding Galore has often melded with the franchise’s spotty and questionable LGBTQ+ representation. However, according to Bond superfan David Lowbridge-Ellis, Bond has always been “spectacularly queer.” Characters like Galore provided at least some representation in a film landscape where almost no one else did. He writes on his website license to queer :

Explicitly queer content was thin on the ground… and often blatantly homophobic. But queer people take representation wherever we can find it.

Some strides, albeit mostly weak ones, have been made in recent films to provide more positive representation of members of the LGBTQ+ community. Most notably, Q, played by openly gay actor Ben Wishaw in Daniel Craig’s Bond installments, is portrayed as gay in the 2021 film No Time to Die. Though it’s subtle, Q is seen preparing dinner at his home for a date with a man in one of the first positive representations of LGBTQ+ life in the Bond universe. Wishaw had mixed feelings about the scene, telling the guardian:

I suppose I don’t feel it was forced upon the studio. That was not my impression of how this came about. I think it came from a good place…. I think I thought, ‘Are we doing this, and then doing nothing with it?’ I remember, perhaps, feeling that was unsatisfying.

The Controversy: When George Lazenby replaced Sean Connery as James Bond in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, fans were less than enthused. Connery had brought the seductive, mysterious secret agent to life and no one wanted to experience a different actor’s portrayal. However, by 1967, an unhappy connery no longer appreciated the direction the role was taking, stating:

What is needed now is a change of course – more attention to character and better dialogue.

Connery left the franchise soon after and Lazenby was recast.

The Aftermath: Lazenby’s portrayal of Bond is considered one of the worst , mainly due to the fact that he only had a single movie to prove himself in the role. Although he is handsome and embodies the cool confidence of the secret agent, his on-screen performance lacks the dynamic suaveness Connery established. In the 2019 book The Many Lives of James Bond, Lazenby explained:

I did the best I could. I felt that I had to copy Sean Connery in a sense.

The decision to recast Lazenby as Bond also had ramifications for future films. Although early versions of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service script explained the cast change as a plastic surgery disguise, this was quickly determined to be an impractical and pointless exercise that would limit future versions of the character. They opted instead to not address the cast change in the film at all, a successful strategy that brought the likes of Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, and Daniel Craig to the role.

The Controversy: In 2019, during the filming of No Time to Die, a controlled explosion caused property damage to the sound stage and injured a crew member. According to The Sun, the injury in question resulted  from a piece of the set falling on the crew member. A source described the incident as “utter chaos,” explaining:

There were three huge explosions and it’s blown part of the roof off and some wall panels off the stage… A fireball was supposed to go through the set. That was the stunt but something has gone horribly wrong.

The Aftermath: In an official statement, the official James Bond Twitter account wrote that there were “no injuries on set, however one crew member outside the stage sustained a minor injury.”

The Health and Safety Executive agency of the UK government determined there wasn’t any need for an investigation. A spokesperson for HSE told the BBC :

After an initial assessment we concluded there was no need for a formal investigation. [We] consider the matter closed.

The Controversy: Despite the enduring popularity of the James Bond franchise, some of its older films have sparked controversy today for their stereotypical depictions of people of color and outright racism.

In Octopussy (1983), Bond gives an Indian man a stack of cash and claims it will “keep him in curry for a few weeks.” He also puts on yellowface to pass as a Japanese man in You Only Live Twice (1967). The franchise has also portrayed members of the Black community in racially insensitive characterizations. For example, in Dr. No., which was released during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Bond thrusts a Black man named Quarrel into the role of a servant when he orders the Jamaican guide to fetch him his nearby shoes.

None of this is particularly surprising considering the source material. Author Ian Fleming used, by modern standards, plenty of offensive and racist language in his novels about the MI6 agent to describe women and people of color, some of which was toned down but certainly not absent in the films.

The Aftermath: Thanks to the British Film Institute, an entity responsible for preserving classic British films, several Bond films have been given a blanket disclaimer during public viewings which says:

Please note that many of these films contain language, images or other content that reflect views prevalent in its time, but will cause offence today (as they did then). The titles are included here for historical, cultural or aesthetic reasons and these views are in no way endorsed by the BFI or its partners.

Several of Fleming’s Bond novels have received updates to remove the problematic language he chose. The novels were updated in April 2023 with Fleming’s approval. His publishers said in a statment:

Following Ian’s approach, we looked at the instances of several racial terms across the books and removed a number of individual words or else swapped them for terms that are more accepted today but in keeping with the period in which the books were written. We encourage people to read the books for themselves when the new paperbacks are published in April.

The novels have also been given disclaimers to cover language that wasn’t edited out, explaining they were written in a different time. They note that, despite updating the original texts, there are potentially “terms and attitudes” which might cause offense.

The Controversy: Sean Connery originally stepped down from his role as James Bond following 1967’s You Only Live Twice. He returned for 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, before leaving the part again, citing age and his desire to move on from the role as his reasons for retirement.

He went on to star in a series of movies that didn’t do well at the box office and found himself entangled in an expensive lawsuit with his former accountant. In need of cash and accepting of the generous offer producer Kevin McClory gave him to participate in the Thunderball remake Never Say Never Again, Connery returned to play James Bond one last time in 1983.

The Aftermath: Connery’s last Bond film earned him &5 million   in addition a share of the movie’s profits and control over the script and casting. Connery, who had long harbored resentment towards the franchise’s original producer Albert R. Broccoli for not making him an equal partner in the original films, was also pleased with the chance to compete with Broccoli’s canon film Octopussy, starring Roger Moore and released the same year.