One of the producers of the James Bond franchise reveals how they convinced Daniel Craig to return for 2021 No time to die. Craig initially stepped into the role of the iconic British super spy in 2006 Casino royale, which acted as both an origin story and a reboot of the franchise, redesigning it as a more realistic, continuity-focused series. The actor played the role for fifteen years, starring Quantum of Solace, skyfall, Ghostand finally No time to die. The last film, the 25th overall Bond film, ended with the death of Craig’s character after the villain, Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), infects him with nanobots that will kill his love interest and their child if he touches them.
Bond’s fate in No time to die is the culmination of many years of exhaustion playing Bond. Craig had already expressed the idea of killing his version of Bond… Casino royale, and between each film, he typically expressed feelings that he didn’t want to return to the role, often leaving fans wondering if the most recent film would turn out to be his last. Craig finally got his wish, but not after playing the part for the longest tenure in James Bond history.
In this week’s episode The Empire Movie PodcastChris Hewitt celebrated the 60th anniversary of the James Bond franchise by interviewing producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who have overseen the franchise since Pierce Brosnan first stepped into the role in 1995 Golden Eye. Broccoli Revealed To Give Craig Time Between Filming Ghost and No time to die before convincing him to return. although Ghost had an ending where Bond retired, she finally convinced the star to make another movie because “the’a great starting place to see Bond retire and how would he handle it?Read her full quote below:
[The idea of killing of Craig’s Bond] came up again when we were making Specter. Because he said, ‘You know, this is it. I don’t want to do anymore. I think we should kill me.” And we said, “mmm, don’t think so.” Mainly because we wanted him to do another one. And so we had the ending where he threw his gun away and he’d leave and a live a happy life.
So some time after that, when he’d had some rest, I said to him, ‘You know this isn’t the end of the story. You can’t go out like this. It’s a great starting place to see Bond retire and how he would cope. So let’s think about that.” And he said, “Okay, I’ll think about it.”
Would Specter have worked as Craig’s Bond final?
As Broccoli puts it, it looks like: Ghost would have been the last film of Craig’s tenure if not for her intervention. As she said, the ending was meant to shut down the character to some degree. Considering the number of threads connecting the 2015 movie by following the original story presented in skyfall and introduces Christoph Waltz as the iconic villain Blofeld, it’s entirely possible that fans were happy with that ending.
However, if Craig’s Bond stint had ended and his character had retired after his last adventure rather than dying or simply being recast, there would have been constant speculation about a possible return. Bond isn’t usually shown stepping down from his post, so the rumor mill would have started spinning with the possibility that the former Bond would eventually return to help the new 007. No time to die closed the book much more firmly to avoid that kind of speculation and finally allow Craig to fulfill his wish.
Source: The Empire Movie Podcast
