James Bond was last seen on the concrete rooftop of a villain’s lair in the Faroe Islands, blown to ashes in a hail of missile fire. Infected with deadly nanobots and bloodied by gunshots, he was condemned even before the weapons struck. 

Resurrecting him was always going to require deftness, but 007 must now be reborn under new ownership: after three decades, franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and her stepbrother Michael Wilson have relinquished control to Amazon MGM Studios. 

After Daniel Craig’s 007 was killed off in No Time to Die, Bond is now a character in search of a lead actor, a creative vision and, some believe, a modern identity. Britain’s most famous spy — whose worldwide appeal has been both boon and burden to the UK intelligence agencies — is looking to a future defined by an American tech giant and its Hollywood ambitions.