Daniel Craig might have become synonymous with the James Bond movies, but he said goodbye to the role for good after a tear-jerking death in the final act of No Time to Die. Although many questioned why Mr. Bond had to die, Craig explained his reasoning in a new interview with the LA Times.
“Two things, one for myself and one for the franchise,” he said. “One, for the franchise, was that resets and start again, which [the franchise] did with me. And I was like, ‘Well, you need to reset again.’ So let’s kill my character off and go find another Bond and go find another story. Start at [age] 23, start at 25, start at 30.”
He continued, “The other was so that I could move on. I don’t want to go back. I suppose I should be so lucky if they were to ask me back, but the fact is I need to move on from it. The sacrifice that he makes in the movie was for love and there’s no greater sacrifice. So it seemed like a good thing to end on.”
Many thought that James Bond would end up being Daniel Craig’s career-defining role, but after playing eccentric detective Benoit Blanc in 2019’s Knives Out, he is making a very welcomed return to the character in the upcoming Knives Out sequel, The Glass Onion.
During the London Film Festival, Knives Out 2 director Rian Johnson revealed that Craig’s character, Benoit Blanc, was gay. This is made clear in the film when you discover the identity of who appears to be Blanc’s partner, which is one of many surprise cameos in the detective movie.
“We didn’t talk about it very much. There was no kind of great discussion about it,” he said. “When it came down to it in this one, it just felt like a good choice. Without spoiling the movie, it’s like, who wouldn’t want to live with that human being? There’s no great depth to it. It made a lot of sense to me.”
The Glass Onion will arrive in theatres on November 23, where it will remain for one week before dropping on streaming service Netflix.