Despite claiming back in 2015 that he was done with Bond, Daniel Craig has said that this time he means it.
In an interview with Total Film, Craig stated that “It’s all over.” When pressed about what makes this time any different to 2015, Craig said, “I thought I probably was physically not capable of doing another [at the time].” Craig had suffered a meniscus knee injury during the filming of Spectre and the now 53-year-old actor says that this is really it for him.
The production team waited two years before approaching Craig to do the final film No Time To Die. Craig said,
“We started talking about it and I went, ‘There might be a story we need to finish here – something we started in Casino [Royale]. Something to do with Vesper, and Spectre, and something that was connected, in a way.’ It started to formulate. And I thought, ‘Here we go.’”
He goes on to add that No Time To Die is indeed a satisfying conclusion to the story, “In terms of closing the story, the circle is complete now. It feels emotionally satisfying.”
Exploring the deeper side of Bond was a big attraction for Craig to return to the role,
“It’s interesting to explore his emotions, because he’s a cut-off character. He doesn’t feel like other people, because he’s a killer… On Casino he loses the love of his life, and then the shutters come down. On Quantum, the flawed movie that it is, it’s about revenge. And Skyfall is about M. It’s about loss. They’re big themes. And I think, ‘Yeah! Why not have big themes?’”
No Time To Die, Craig explains is about “Love and family. Because what’s bigger than that?”
No Time To Die is set for release October 8. Hopefully, the pandemic won’t push it back further.