James Bond, the world’s suavest secret agent, has always been defined by a handful of icons: the tuxedo, the martini, the fast cars, and—perhaps most famously—his trusty sidearm. But as of October 2025, fans logging into Amazon Prime Video for a dose of 007 are encountering a curious new twist: Bond’s gun is gone. In a sweeping and unannounced makeover, Amazon has digitally scrubbed firearms from the promotional posters for nearly every classic James Bond film in its streaming catalog. The result? A pistol-less Bond, and a firestorm of debate about censorship, branding, and the future of one of cinema’s most enduring franchises.
The change came quietly on October 4, 2025—James Bond Day, no less—when Amazon refreshed the key art for its legacy Bond titles. As reported by outlets like Kotaku and The Spy Command, the new digital posters riff on the originals but with one glaring omission: Bond’s iconic Walther PPK is nowhere to be seen. Sean Connery’s arms are folded in the classic Dr. No pose, but his pistol has vanished. Roger Moore, once depicted mid-action in Octopussy or Moonraker, now stands awkwardly, hands empty or posed in anatomically odd ways. Pierce Brosnan’s debonair grip in GoldenEye is replaced by a hand that seems unsure what to do with itself. Even the famous gun barrel motif remains in the 007 logo, but the weapon itself is absent from the posters.
According to Scorpio Like You, the edits range from subtle cropping to heavy-handed AI retouching. In some instances, the gun is simply cropped out, while in others, digital tools have been used to erase the weapon and fill in missing background details. The changes have not gone unnoticed. Social media erupted with side-by-side comparisons, showing just how much the new posters diverge from their source material. Fans were quick to spot the oddities: Bond’s hands hanging limply in The Spy Who Loved Me or the “kung-fu grip” in Octopussy where a pistol once rested. As one observer put it, some covers now look like “slop, AI slop.”
Reaction has been swift and divided. Some viewers see the move as unnecessary political correctness, a sanitization of a franchise built on grit, danger, and, yes, gunfights. “Why does Amazon want to pretend that guns aren’t part and parcel of the whole 007 package?” asked one longtime fan, quoted by Giant Freakin Robot. Others interpret the decision as a branding choice, designed to make Bond more family-friendly and to align with evolving global advertising standards. As Kotaku reported, industry insiders speculate that the change could be tied to sensitivities in regulated markets like Europe and Asia, where depictions of firearms in promotional material can trigger stricter content moderation or advertising restrictions.
Amazon, which acquired MGM and the Bond franchise rights for $8.45 billion in 2021, has yet to issue an official statement explaining the rationale behind the edits. The silence has only fueled speculation—and concern. Some fans worry this is just the first step in a broader campaign to “clean up” Bond for modern audiences. The debate echoes earlier controversies, such as Disney’s decision in 2018 to remove a laser gun from Han Solo’s hand in Solo: A Star Wars Story promotional material, or more recent instances where weapons disappeared from action film posters.
What’s especially odd, critics note, is that Amazon’s gun removal is limited to promotional images. The films themselves remain untouched. Anyone who hits play on Dr. No or GoldenEye will find Bond as trigger-happy as ever, with the famous gun barrel sequence still opening each adventure. As Scorpio Like You wryly observed, “the bullets are on the screen; they are just not on the posters.” Meanwhile, other Amazon Prime Video offerings—like Play Dirty, Heads of State, and The Accountant 2—continue to feature gun-toting heroes and villains in their own marketing art. Even on iTunes, some Bond posters still feature firearms, while others do not, creating a patchwork of approaches across platforms.
For longtime fans, the move has touched a nerve. Many see the gun as inseparable from Bond’s cinematic DNA. From Sean Connery’s first outing in 1962 to Daniel Craig’s recent, more emotionally vulnerable take, 007 has always been a man of action—and that action has almost always involved a weapon. “Bond without his PPK is like Q without gadgets,” one commentator noted. The edits, some argue, risk eroding the very essence of what makes Bond, Bond.
Yet others point out that the franchise has always evolved with the times. The recent films, especially those starring Daniel Craig, have explored new facets of Bond’s personality, from emotional depth to moral ambiguity. Eon Productions boss Barbara Broccoli has reportedly resisted calls to radically alter Bond’s gender or persona, but Amazon’s growing influence over the franchise’s future is undeniable. The streaming giant now has the power to shape not just how Bond is seen, but who he might become.
There’s also a broader industry context. As streaming services vie for global audiences, content moderation and branding choices are under more scrutiny than ever. The Bond poster controversy is just one example of how legacy franchises are being reimagined—or sanitized—for a new era. Some see this as a necessary evolution; others as a loss of authenticity. The debate is likely to intensify as Amazon and other tech giants continue to acquire and repackage cultural icons for the digital age.
Looking ahead, the Bond universe shows no signs of slowing down. IO Interactive’s highly anticipated Project 007 video game, slated for release in 2026, promises to introduce a new generation to the world of international espionage. Whether future iterations of Bond—on screen or in pixels—will be as heavily edited as their promotional posters remains to be seen.
For now, fans can rest assured that while the posters may have changed, the Bond films themselves remain as action-packed as ever. The gun barrel still spins, the martinis are still shaken, and 007 remains, in all his flawed glory, a symbol of cinematic cool. The question is whether the man with the golden gun can ever truly be disarmed—or if, in the world of modern media, image is everything.
