Tech giant Amazon released a set of James Bond posters on its Prime Video platform showing the fictional spy without guns, sparking criticism from fans and media outlets over the artwork’s woke approach.
The reasoning behind the gun-free edits has not been publicly explained, though similar changes have occurred in promotional material for other franchises, including Disney’s Han Solo (part of Star Wars).
The posters had depicted actors such as Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig without their signature firearms.
The promotional images included doctored versions of well-known publicity shots, such as Connery cradling a Walther PPK in Dr. No and Moore holding a .44 Magnum in Live and Let Die, digitally edited to remove the weapons. Even a teaser poster for Craig’s Spectre was cropped to exclude his pistol, though shoulder holsters remained visible. Fans quickly noticed the changes, calling them a departure from the franchise’s traditional imagery.
The company acquired the Bond franchise through its purchase of Amazon MGM Studios earlier this year for over $1 billion.
Earlier online promotional material had also minimized the presence of female companions, showing digitally enhanced images of Bond actors alone. Later updates restored 007 alongside his love interests.
While the gun-free posters sparked criticism, the films themselves continue to depict Bond armed, including in classic sequences such as the famous gun barrel opening which started in 1962’s Dr. No. Film titles including Live and Let Die (1973), A View to a Kill (1985), Licence to Kill (1989), Die Another Day (2002), and No Time to Die (2021) should also act as a ‘trigger warning’ to prospective viewers of the films’ content.
This is not the first time Bond has gone woke. A 2023 ‘update’ of the 007 character by writer-comedian Charlie Higson saw Bond taking on Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s government.
The reasoning behind removing firearms from the posters has not yet been made public. Similar edits removing weapons from promotional material have occurred in other franchises, such as with Disney’s 2018 Han Solo poster and 2025’s Thunderbolts.
