After multiple delays, No Time to Die will finally arrive later this year. Unfortunately the film will serve as Daniel Craig’s swan song in the long-running franchise. Some critics and fans have referred to Craig’s time as one of the best James Bond runs in decades. For many Bond fans, this latest film will be a sad affair as Craig’s run ends. But sentimentality isn’t the angle No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga is going for. With the film serving as Craig’s farewell movie, the director revealed the film will feature one major hallmark from other Bond films.
Bond fans have been waiting for years to see Daniel Craig’s final Bond outing. Some might feel Craig deserves a long, drawn-out goodbye, but that isn’t the James Bond way. Cary Joji Fukunaga will follow the traditional Bond approach with a certain ending. The No Time to Die director spoke to Total Film about Craig’s final foray as the international spy:
No one’s trying to say some sort of long sentimental goodbye. It’s just another Bond film. The credits still say: 'Bond will return.' I didn’t approach it as a last film. I approached it as: What am I inheriting? What can we do to make this a little bit fresh and exciting, and subvert some of the expectations?
For anyone who has watched James Bond films over the decades, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s approach is business as usual. The transition from one Bond to another is treated like the passing of the torch from an outgoing CEO to a new one. So Daniel Craig’s exit is being treated no differently than when he replaced Pierce Bronson. But the attachment and love for Craig differ as his run had an emotional thread that connected every film. As such, fans might be a little more sentimental when it comes to the Knives Out star. While some traditions have stayed, others needed to be updated for today’s generation.
While speaking with Total Film, Cary Joji Fukunaga revealed how Daniel Craig’s final Bond outing will be different from the others. He admitted bringing in Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridges to revise No Time to Die’s script helped to subvert some Bond tropes. Waller-Bridge’s work will be most obvious in the female characters like newcomers Lashana Lynch and Ana de Armas. That means things will be different for James Bond this time.
This evolution in the James Bond franchise probably wouldn’t have happened if things went differently. As many know, Daniel Craig almost stepped away from the franchise over not feeling physically up for the heavy action. Luckily, Craig changed his mind and participated in No Time to Die. Now, Bond fans get to bid farewell to the actor when his final Bond film arrives in theaters on Oct. 8.
