After more than six decades of exclusive control of the filming rights to Ian Fleming’s novels, Eon Productions has sold the creative control of the James Bond franchise to Amazon MGM.

Variety reported the news on Thursday, revealing that Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli formed a joint venture with the company to share the intellectual property rights to the franchise, with Amazon gaining creative control.

Immediately, the news was met with skepticism on social media, with Bond fans predicting a bitter end for Bond, James Bond in the hands of Amazon MGM.

“Amazon MGM Studios gaining creative control of the 007 franchise is the death knell for Bond. It’s gonna be films (and shows) written and constructed on baffling, garbage algorithms,” one Twitter user wrote. 

“I have this same exact fear!” another responded. “We’re gonna get an M prequel, and a 003 spin off series, Bond is going to struggle with his license to kill, etc… all things that aren’t Bond and we didn’t ask for.”

Even Avengers‘ Joe Russo weighed in and warned the company not to follow the Marvel model, writing, “DON’T cinematic universe James Bond. It’s one of our last, great theatrical events. Don’t dilute it with a plethora of streaming spin-offs.”

“This is not good,” another user wrote in response to Variety’s reporting. “007 has remained a marketable brand because of the creative ability and necessary restraint over time not to dilute the brand that Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson practiced.”

Some responses have been a bit more optimistic than others, however. For example, one writer suggested that this could be an opportunity to bring Christopher Nolan in as director of the franchise, while another predicted the deal surely means Henry Cavill will step into the now-vacant role of James Bond.

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