James Bond’s 25th film, No Time To Die, doesn’t hit theaters until April of 2020, but it’s already dealing with some minor snafus. In fact, news broke this weekend that a planned tour of No Time To Die as well as an April premiere have been cancelled. The events were supposed to happen in Beijing and across China.
James Bond, unlike Star Wars, is popular in China and a splashy premiere tour would make sense for the country. However, concerns over the Wuhan Coronavirus are still prominent in the country as the death toll in China in particular has climbed past 1600 and has shown no signs of slowing down.
From the outside, it might seem a little premature to be cancelling events set for a couple of months from now, but China is sort of in unknown territory with the Coronavirus. People who test positive have to be quarantined for multiple weeks and there haven’t been enough hospital isolation units to maintain control over the disease.
No Time To Die will not be the first movie affected by the Coronavirus. In fact, a slew of Hollywood premieres have been affected by the outbreak in recent weeks. Dolittle lost out on a big China release. Smaller films such as Little Women, 1917, and Jojo Rabbit were also affected. Originally, Sonic The Hedgehog expected to be business as usual in China but ultimately did not open there either. Other crowded spaces, like theme parks, have also been impacted.
Per Deadline, Daniel Craig and the cast will not be heading to Beijing for the screening event anymore and in fact the whole thing has been shuttered due to cinemas being closed and there being no end to the Coronavirus currently in sight. A planned world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London, U.K. is still expected to happen on March 31, 2020.
Ultimately, the film will hit U.K. theaters a little early on April 2 and then will reach its North American release on April 10. No Time To Die will be the last outing for Daniel Craig as James Bond and it is rumored to be introducing a new 007 (the number not a new Bond) as Craig’s character is set to be retired at the start of the movie. We'll have to wait and see how the whole storyline pans out, but the first look trailers at the movie have been fairly exciting.
We’ll keep you updated regarding more movie news of this ilk, but for now you can see what movies are coming and may be impacted globally in the coming weeks as big titles like Disney's Mulan and more continue to roll out with our full movies schedule.
