No Time to Die is now available to watch on Prime Video, which has got us reminiscing about Daniel Craig's James Bond era.
While they might be known forever as 007, the actors who play the iconic role know that they're only borrowing it for a time. Whether it's because they get too old or they fear they'll get typecast, Bond stars exit the role in a variety of ways – and not always through their own choice.
It looked like Craig was going to quit after Spectre and those infamous comments, but he returned for one final mission in No Time to Die – and what a final mission it turned out to be.
Bond fans have endlessly debated the dark ending, and one thing's for certain, there's no scope for Craig's 007 to return, unlike Sean Connery's. It's also clear that it was his choice to quit the role and, if Bond's death didn't make it clear enough, it was because Craig felt the story was told.
Watch No Time to Die on Prime Video
It's why he decided to return after Spectre as he felt he still had to wrap up the story of his Bond before he quit. "I always had a kind of secret idea about the whole lot in my head, and where I wanted to take it. And Spectre wasn't that. But [No Time to Die] feels like it is," he explained in December 2019.
"If [Spectre] had been it, the world would have carried on as normal, and I would have been absolutely fine. But somehow it felt like we needed to finish something off. If I'd left it at Spectre, something at the back of my head would have been going, 'I wish I'd done one more'."
As dramatic and surprising as No Time to Die's ending might have felt, it was actually something that had been planned by Craig for a while. In face, he'd been thinking about killing his 007 since the release of Casino Royale in 2006.
"I said to Barbara [Broccoli], 'How many of these movies do I have to make?' because I don't really look at contracts or any of those things. And she said, 'Four,' and I went, 'Oh, okay. Can I kill him off in the last one?' And she didn't pause. She said, 'Yes'," he recalled in December 2021.
"So I struck a deal with her back then and said, 'That’s the way I'd like it to go'. It's the only way I could see for myself to end it all and to make it like that was my tenure, someone else could come and take over. She stuck to her guns."
Unlike his predecessor Pierce Brosnan, it's good that Craig quit Bond of his own accord and you can't deny that he made his exit count.
Now we just have to wait around to see who the next 007 will be...
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
