After months of not so subtly implying that he was ready to be done playing the world’s most iconic spy, Daniel Craig has finally confirmed that he will, in fact, be returning for the next 007 film to play James Bond one last time. But the actor was also candid and admitted his conflicting feelings about the role.
Image: MGM/Columbia Pictures
When asked during an interview with Stephen Colbert whether he’d return for the 25th Bond movie, Craig said that the decision had been made months ago, but that he’d been playing coy out of a desire to “figure things out”. This, it should be pointed out, is an complete 180 from what Craig said literally yesterday in a radio interview with Morning Magic 106.7 in which he explicitly said that no decision about his returning had been made yet.
When Colbert pressed Craig about his previous statement after 2015’s Spectre about not wanting to return to the franchise, Craig explained that the notorious interview happened just days after he’d wrapped on shooting when the actor was (understandably) more than a little emotionally drained.
Said Craig:
There’s no point making excuses about it, but it was two days after I had finished shooting the last movie and I went straight to an interview where someone asked, “Would you do another one?” and I went, “No!”
Craig also said that his exact response at the time was far from ideal, but that he made the decision to come back for one more film so that he could go out on a high note.
Daniel Craig’s fifth and final performance as James Bond on the silver screen is scheduled to hit US theatres on 8 November 2019.