The legacy of the James Bond film franchise is not without its twists and turns, many of which are excellently captured in the documentary Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007.  One of the more difficult stories related to the film series involves Thunderball, which began with an original screenplay by Bond creator Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory, before Fleming decided to cut McClory out of the picture and publish the novel Thunderball—based on the idea the two hatched together—with nary a mention of McClory.  The result was a decades-long legal battle and two “unofficial” Bond films (Thunderball and Never Say Never Again), but at long last the entanglement has ended.

Hit the jump for more, including what this means for the Bond franchise going forward.

daniel-craig-skyfall
Image via Sony and MGM

Per HitFix, MGM and Danjaq have reached a settlement deal resulting in MGM now controlling all of the rights to James Bond.  This is noteworthy because this deal means that classic Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld and the nefarious organization SPECTRE are now back in the official library, meaning future Bond films from Sony can incorporate the character and/or organization.  It’s kind of like Warner Bros. finally getting the rights to Lex Luthor.

Skyfall director Sam Mendes is currently hard at work developing Bond 24, which is poised to open in UK theaters on October 23, 2015 and in the US on November 6, 2015.  Details on the pic have been scarce and I doubt the producers have time to rework the film and include Blofeld before filming begins next year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some Easter Egg referencing SPECTRE.  Post-credits sequences are all the rage at the moment, so maybe we’ll even get a Blofeld cameo at the end of the pic.

bond-24-daniel-craig