Prime Video’s limited series Bait is using its James Bond-inspired storyline to explore identity, surveillance and the emotional struggles of being Muslim in the West, according to the show’s creative team during a panel discussion at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

The event featured star Riz Ahmed alongside co-showrunner Ben Carlin, producer Allie Moore, director Bassam Tariq and music supervisor Kira Elwis, with the conversation moderated by filmmaker Daniel Kwan.

Ahmed explained that the series was not originally centred on James Bond. The idea evolved after his experiences following roles in Rogue One and The Night Of, when he noticed a gap between public perception and his reality.

Ahmed recalled that while people imagined him “on a yacht with Han Solo,” he was actually “walking around in flip-flops and cycle shorts” and joked about getting “banned from Tesco’s for being a suspected shoplifter the same week ‘Star Wars’ comes out.”

Reflecting on the emotional weight behind the story, Ahmed said, “Somebody told me that distance is the amount of shame that you carry. I thought, ‘yeah, that’s true. I need to get therapy or make a TV show about it.’”

Carlin later introduced the Bond-inspired angle, explaining the show needed “one focal point, vessel or symbol with which to tell this story.”

Ahmed also described the deeper meaning behind the spy imagery: “Being Muslim in the West feels like you’re stuck in a spy thriller,” adding that the series explores “the paranoia, the surveillance, the sense of being looked at but not really seen.”