If 2020 had any decency whatever we would have seen No Time to Die months ago and we'd probably already be deep in an all-new debate about who should play James Bond next. However, that's not the world we live in and so instead we're sitting around waiting for November in hopes that when we get there the world will have calmed down enough that we can all go see a James Bond movie in theaters again. Until then we have to gaze longingly at pictures of Rami Malek, which, I mean, isn't the worst thing, even if he looks a little worse for wear in No Time to Die.
The official James Bond Instagram page dropped a new image that shows off Rami Malek's character. His name is Safin, and for the most part that's really all we know about the character. No Time to Die is teasing a movie that will change everything about James Bond and will be full of secrets to be revealed, but exactly how this guy fits into it all, we'll have to wait and see.
Originally set for an April release, No Time to Die was one of the first major releases to get pushed back, even before American theaters were closed, due to the fact that closures were already happening in other nations, and the international box office is of greater importance to the James Bond franchise than it is to many other releases. The film was rescheduled for November, and while it seems likely now that at least some theaters will be open in November, it's unclear how widespread that will be.
This is all the more important because the closure of theaters came at exactly the wrong time for No Time to Die. The film was in the middle of its pre-release marketing blitz to get people hyped to see the movie when everything had to stop. That means that the movie will need to do all that again in the fall, which means the film will need to be that much more successful from a financial standpoint, something that may be tough if theaters aren't widely open around the world.
One way or another, Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond will make it to the public, and then we really can move on to the question of what comes next. James Bond is second to maybe only Godzilla when it comes to franchise longevity on the big screen. There will be more Bond movies, that's not even a question. We just don't know what they will look like.
Hopefully, No Time to Die will open this November as planned in a world that has moved on at least enough that the theatrical experience will be widely available and we can all enjoy it together.
