The Daniel Craig-era of James Bond films has introduced a lot of new elements to the franchise, but certainly one of the most significant is continuity and a more substantial connectivity between films. The story that began with Casino Royale has in many ways been leading to the events that unfold in the upcoming Spectre. And while the reality is that the filmmakers haven’t really been thinking about sequels in advance, Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes did ensure that one very significant element from 2012’s Skyfall continued to have a presence in the new follow-up: a larger sense of Bond’s personal history and background.
This past weekend I flew down to Mexico City for a special press event for Spectre, and it was while sitting down with Daniel Craig that I learned how the latest 007 adventure first started to grow out of the events in its predecessor. The subject was broached when I asked the star if there had been any discussions about Spectre’s plot on the set of Skyfall, and while Craig actually laughed while saying, "No," he did reveal the one area of the previous movie that he made sure carried over. He explained,
It came from scratch, except for… what Sam [Mendes] did brilliantly in Skyfall was connect him to his past. And I think that it seemed like too rich a vein of ideas not to tap into somehow with this. It doesn’t mean that’s all that this movie is about, because it’s not. This is first and foremost a big James Bond movie, and there are plenty of things going on that make it so. But it makes it very interesting for me as a character to think about those things.
You can watch Daniel Craig’s response in the video below:
The events of Skyfall literally took James Bond back to his younger years, specifically in the form of the titular estate where he grew up… though he did also wind up blowing the entire place to hell. This served as a wonderful metaphor for the super spy returning to the roots of the franchise, as the movie also brought back characters like Q and Moneypenny, as well as gadgets like the special Aston Martin and Walther PPK. It seems that Daniel Craig really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about where his iconic character came from and became who he is, and that opened a door for that to be further explored in Spectre.
Having spoken to many members of the Spectre cast down in Mexico, we have a lot more James Bond content coming this week, so be sure to stay tuned and get ready for the film to hit theaters this Friday, November 6th.
