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James Bond famously has a license to kill, but it seems as though Amazon wanted to downplay that essential aspect of cinema's most famous spy. On October 5—known as James Bond Day because it's the anniversary of the first film, Dr. No—viewers who went to watch a Bond movie on Prime Video U.K. were met with a series of new thumbnails for every film where all of the guns had been Photoshopped out of 007's hands.
The edits were crude, too. Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan appear to be positioning their fists in awkward ways without the firearm they were clearly holding in the posters for Dr. No and Goldeneye. On the poster for A View to a Kill, Roger Moore's arms appear unnaturally long, as if Photoshop was used to extend them so that his gun would be cropped out by the bottom of the image.
Amazon have removed the guns from their Bond posters, giving the tantalising impression that Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan think you’re a wanker. pic.twitter.com/tyjMVD1mit
— rufus jones (@rufusjones1) October 3, 2025
After fans pointed out the edits on X, noting that in some cases the removal of the gun made it look like Bond was making a rude gesture, Amazon quietly replaced all of the edited images with new thumbnails. Notably, none of the new thumbnails have visible guns in them, though at least now it's because they're cropped out or simply stills where Bond wasn't holding a weapon in the first place.
Amazon hasn't commented on the edited, gun-free images nor the decision to replace them.
The decision to obscure Bond's guns from any Brit browsing Prime Video's library is a baffling one. This is a film series that's full of guns. Guns are such a big part of these films that even the type of weapon Bond typically wields, a Walther PPK, is iconic. One of the most celebrated first-person shooter video games ever made, Goldeneye, is based on a Bond flick. Trying to minimize guns and gun culture might be well-intentioned, but to attempt to do so in just the posters for James Bond films reads as largely meaningless. There might not be a gun in the poster, but if somebody were to start playing The Man With the Golden Gun on Prime Video, they would certainly see some guns anyway.
Fans Are Worried About What This Means For Amazon's Ownership of 007
What's troubling for fans of 007 is that Amazon isn't just some company that streams the Bond movies—it owns them, and will be creating the next installment of the franchise. Amazon bought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio behind the films, in 2022. In February of 2025, it paid $1 billion to purchase full creative control from Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson; ending the Broccoli family's longtime stewardship over the series.
Denis Villeneuve, director of the Dune movies, is set to helm the next Bond movie, which will star a new actor as 007 and be the first Bond flick to come out since Amazon purchased the series. Because Amazon hasn't commented on the edited images, there's no way to know for sure what the motivation was behind the changes, though most of what Amazon does comes down to profitability. If Prime Video removed the guns from the posters in some misguided algorithmic attempt to maximize the appeal of 007, some fans worry it could be a bad sign for the creative future of the storied franchise.
You can stream all 25 James Bond films on Amazon Prime Video now.
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