Sam Mendes: James Bond Producers Want Directors Who Are ‘Controllable by the Studio’

The “Skyfall” and “Spectre” filmmaker said the franchise prefers new directors because they're "more malleable."

Sam Mendes may have outgrown the James Bond franchise in more ways than one.

Mendes, who directed 007 films “Skyfall” (2012) and “Spectre” (2015), told Inverse that he probably won’t return to make a third. The key members behind the franchise, like producer Barbara Broccoli and now Amazon MGM Studios, prefer up-and-coming filmmakers who are “more controllable.”

“They want slightly more malleable people who are earlier in their career, who perhaps are going to use it as a stepping stone, and who are more controllable by the studio,” Mendes said.

Mendes hedged on the notion of a third Bond film with the requisite “never say never,” but it sounds like a never.

“I would doubt it,” Mendes said. “It was very good for me at that moment in my life. I felt like it shot me out of some old habits. It made me think on a bigger scale. It made me use different parts of my brain. You have to have a lot of energy.”

Mendes previously told Deadline in 2022 that a female filmmaker should direct the next Bond.

“I think that the actor playing Bond is going to evolve, the director has to evolve,” he said. “I think it would be wonderful to see a woman directing Bond. I think it would be wonderful.”

Mendes’ Bond Daniel Craig, who also led 2006’s “Casino Royale” and 2021’s “No Time to Die,” has officially exited the franchise. Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been rumored as the new Bond. Broccoli has stayed mum on the next iteration.

“I think these movies reflect the time they are in, and there’s a big, big road ahead reinventing it for the next chapter,” Broccoli told The Guardian in 2023, “and we haven’t even begun with that.”

However, we do know that Bond will still be a male character.

“He was written as a male and I think he’ll probably stay as a male,” Broccoli said, “and that’s fine. We don’t have to turn male characters into women. Let’s just create more female characters and make the story fit those female characters.”