Amazon Prime Video Edits Gun Out of James Bond’s Hand in Promo Poster

A series of promotional posters for James Bond movies on Amazon Prime Video were edited so that 007 was missing his gun. The pictures have since been taken down after fan backlash.

The series of images that appeared on the U.K. website made it look as if the character was holding something invisible. Or as one actor put it, makes it look like he is giving a rude gesture.

Fans criticized the decision to disarm Bond of his iconic Walther PPK. “License not to kill,” jokes one X user. Others pointed out that there is still a gun in the 007 logo.

It appears to be a good old-fashioned Photoshop job that an editor has done on the photos to remove the guns. Although one image of Roger Moore’s Bond on the poster for A View to a Kill appears to have had the arms elongated so the guns he was holding disappeared. Same in the Spectre poster showing Daniel Craig’s Bond, where it looks like the image was simply cropped out to hide his firearm.

James Bond is a fictional spy who works for Britain’s intelligence services, known as MI6. The classic action movies all have sequences showing Bond engaged in a gunfight. So it is a strange choice to remove Bond’s weapons.

The decision adds to consternation over the direction that Amazon wants to take the long-running movie series. Albert “Cubby” Broccoli launched the franchise in 1962 and the Broccoli family has retained creative control for every movie since.

But after Amazon acquired MGM Studios in 2021, the Broccoli family handed over creative control to Amazon, leaving fans anxious over what the next film might be like. Long-serving movie producer Barbara Broccoli reportedly called Amazon “idiots” over the direction the company is taking Bond. The last film was No Time to Die released in 2021 and marked Daniel Craig’s final appearance as Bond.