The time has finally come to watch Daniel Craig’s last installment as James Bond in No Time To Die, which hits theatres this fall. Craig’s 5th Bond movie was delayed three times due to the COVID 19 pandemic, and it looks like the 4th time will be the charm for fans.
No Time To Die is the 25th film in the James Bond franchise and also stars Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Ana de Armas, and Ben Whishaw, to name a few. The film follows a now-retired James Bond who is approached by CIA friend Felix Leiter to help find a missing scientist.
6 Daniel Craig's Tearful Goodbye Caught On Video
No Time To Die will mark 15 years of Daniel Craig as Bond, the longest streak of any James Bond actor, and a recent clip from the No Time To Die set went viral for showing the often steely Craig delivering an emotional speech on his last day as Bond (tuxedo and all).
“I’ve loved every single second of these movies, and especially this one, because I’ve gotten up every morning and I’ve had the chance to work with you guys. And that has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” Craig says to the crew before becoming overcome with emotion. Craig’s final address to the cast and crew was reportedly filmed in 2019 for a documentary called Being James Bond, an homage to the man who played Bond in Skyfall, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Spectre, and No Time To Die.
5 How Craig Became Bond
The year was 2005, and producer Barbara Broccoli was on the hunt for a new James Bond after Pierce Brosnan’s final installment Die Another Day. Actors such as Karl Urban, Sam Worthington, Dougray Scott and Henry Cavill were considered for the iconic role before Craig won the part of a young and inexperienced Bond in Casino Royale.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, casting director Debbie McWilliams opened up about Craig’s casting, revealing: "There was a massive search before he was cast and it had started out as a slightly different slant on things. Originally the story of Casino Royale was meant to be a sort of new, young tryout growing into James Bond rather than the fully formed character, but we struggled to find anybody who could fill those shoes… Then as time went by they decided, let's just stick with the old formula and let's look at it again. And that was after a long, long search and Daniel became the obvious choice to me in the end. Well, he was obvious to me and obvious to Barbara Broccoli, not so obvious to everybody else. [Laughs] It was she who battled long and hard for him and she won the day."
Craig was officially announced as Bond in October 2005, and embarked on filming “the gritty reboot” that was Casino Royale.
4 Fans Hated Craig’s Casting At First
The world had a new James Bond, but they weren’t necessarily happy about it. Craig’s casting was embroiled in controversy, with fans of the franchise claiming that he was not attractive enough to play the iconic spy. There was also the matter of his hair (fans had come to know James Bond as a brunette, and Craig was the first blond actor to tackle the role), and the fact that he was seen as too “blue collar” to properly play Bond.
Twitter had not yet been invented back then, so fans resorted to writing to the studio, and creating a website called danielcraigisnotbond.com, a place where they could bond over their complaints about Craig’s casting. Some even demanded Pierce Brosnan be hired back.
3 "Bond" Casting Director Felt Sorry For Craig
Casting director Debbie McWilliams acknowledged the backlash, saying she felt sorry for all the negative attention Craig was receiving. “It was unbelievably negative, I have to say,” McWilliams recalled. “The press response was awful and I felt so sorry for him, but in a funny kind of a way I think it almost spurred him on to do his damndest to prove everybody wrong. The whole way through the film, stuff would come out about [how] he couldn’t walk and talk, he couldn’t run, he couldn’t drive a car properly, so much stuff which was completely and utterly untrue. And he just kept his head down, got on with the job and then the film came out and everybody went, ‘Oh wow, I think we quite like him after all.”
2 'Casino Royale' Got Rave Reviews
Craig seemingly did prove his naysayers wrong - Casino Royale went on to gross $167.4 million at the box office, and his next three Bond movies surpassed that, with Skyfall grossing an impressive $304.4 million (making it the highest grossing James Bond film of all time).
Critics and fans alike praised Craig’s performance in Casino Royale. “But for now, Bond fans have--for the first time in a long, long time--something to savor,” wrote Christopher Orr in The Atlantic. Casino Royale’s Rotten Tomatoes page is also full of praise from fans, including a fan review by a user named Mr. N stating “Daniel Craig's debut as 007 which he knocked out of the park. A very grounded, smart, realistic James Bond film. Casino Royale is debatably for most fans the best Bond film and I can honestly view this film as a movie of its own to be honest. Daniel Craig is the best Bond since Sean Connery.”
1 Fans React To Daniel Craig’s Emotional Video
15 years after the release of Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s swan song is upon us. And the fans who were once furious about his casting? They are nowhere to be found, or at least being overshadowed by Bond fans such as Chris Evans sharing their sadness at Craig’s departure.
Twitter user Greg Alba called Craig’s goodbye video “extremely touching,” while Twitter user Jonathan Spencer admits he is going to miss Daniel Craig as Bond “so much”. Reporter Clint Watts even went so far as to declaring that Daniel Craig was the reason he became a James Bond fan.
Writer and Twitter user Shauna kept things simple:
Though fans might have different opinions about No Time To Die when it comes out, one thing is for certain - nobody seems to be ready to say goodbye to Daniel Craig.
