Here we go again, back on the endlessly spinning New James Bond Movie Carousel of Misery (TM) where “news” is always just out of reach. This time it’s Denis Villeneuve dropping a vague “soon” for a Bond 26 announcements timeline in his comments to Variety, and for fans of James Bond, that word does more harm than good.

This was a golden opportunity to throw the fandom a bone by either stating there is in fact no concrete timeline or if there is one but it’s under wraps, say that too. Anything is better than fueling speculation with a word that could mean weeks (who am I kidding, it’s not weeks…), months, or an even longer stretch of radio silence.

At this stage, even the loosest window would go a long way to satisfy Bond fans, and more importantly generate some hype. “Next month,” “within six months,” even something as distant as “2027” would at least give fans a target to latch onto. Right now, we’re just stuck in limbo again, waiting for the next signal from MI6.