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Amazon's Edit of James Bond Imagery Makes a Strong Case Against Digital Media

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  October 05, 2025 11:00 AM

Film buffs, historians, and anti-censorship types have long warned about the problems with digital media. On one hand, it allows consumers to have access to vast swaths of entertainment, including foreign films, and it gives life to older movies that may have been lost to the annals of time.

On the other hand, it can lead to blatant or stealth censorship of digital media in an attempt to appease "modern audiences."

In 2023, Variety reported edits were made to Ian Fleming's James Bond to remove "racist content:"

After the Roald Dahl text editing controversy that erupted in recent days, it is now the turn of Ian Fleming‘s James Bond novels to be rewritten.

A report in U.K. newspaper The Telegraph reveals that ahead of the reissue of the Bond novels in April to mark 70 years of “Casino Royale,” the first book in the series, rights holders Ian Fleming Publications Ltd commissioned a review by sensitivity readers.

Each book will carry the disclaimer, “This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace. A number of updates have been made in this edition, while keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set,” The Telegraph said.

So it's fitting we go back to James Bond, because Amazon has decided to digitally remove guns from key art on all the Bond movies on the platform.

They did it for every available Bond film.

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Yikes, indeed.

James Bond-based website MI-6 has more:

In a disappointing case of fiction becoming fact, Amazon has decided to remove guns from the key art used on all the James Bond films on Prime. Whilst it may be appealing to have a unified look for the series on streaming, removing the Walthers has left Bond with some awkward poses. 

Some covers have been achieved by cropping the image so the gun is outside the lower edge, but in some cases the images have been digitally manipulated to varying levels of success, including: Dr No (awkwardly folded arms), A View To A Kill (long arms), GoldenEye (contemplation), and Spectre (clumsily shortened empty holster). 

We note they didn't remove the gun from the 007 logo underneath the titles. And for a company that wants consistency across the key art, they missed one big thing: there are multiple actors playing James Bond. 

Amazon says this move, coming after it acquired the James Bond properties from MGM, was designed to create a unified design for the property. They said they would not alter the violence or guns in the films.

Color us skeptical that Amazon will stick to that promise. It's very easy to see the next iteration of Bond de-emphasizing the violence, gunplay, and masculinity to appease "modern audiences" so Amazon can do to 007 what they did to The Lord of the Rings.

Other social media users expressed disappointment in this, too.

"So much effort just to make a thing suck," wrote one user. Another said, "It's offensive and will be a slippery slope. Shades of 1984 or North Korea. It's disgusting."

"They shape their Brave New World," said Break the Chains Media. "This why they are pushing streaming services while all physical copies of media will become inaccessible. They will control & AI their technological hellscapes as they see fit."

Probably a good idea to buy physical copies of any media you enjoy, before the progressive mob woke-ifies it into oblivion.