Daniel Craig returns to play James Bond for a fifth and final time in No Time To Die, but who will play the British superspy next? We still don’t know, but series producer Barbara Broccoli has said the search for the next James Bond will begin in 2022.
Speaking on the BBC Radio’s Today show, Broccoli said she doesn’t want the conversation about the next James Bond to overshadow Craig’s final appearance as Bond.
“We want Daniel to have his time of celebration,” she said (via Deadline). “Next year we’ll start thinking about the future.”
Michael G. Wilson, another producer at Eon, said in the interview that Craig leaves the Bond role with some “big shoes to fill.” Indeed, Craig played Bond not only five times but he helped elevate the series to new heights, with Skyfall being the first in the series to crack $1 billion at the box office.
Broccoli said Craig helped give Bond more of a humanity in his performances. “He enabled us to explore the emotional life of Bond, to go deeply into the personal, complexity of the character,” she said.
While we don’t know who specifically will play Bond next, it likely will not be a woman. Broccoli said she would like to create more female characters in the 007 universe, but James Bond will always be a man for as long as she controls the series.
Pierce Brosnan, who portrayed the legendary super-spy James Bond in four 007 movies, said it wastime for a woman to play Bond.
In a separate interview with the BBC, which you can watch above, Craig offered up a succinct piece of advice for whoever plays James Bond next: “Don’t be sh**.”
No Time To Die arrives in UK cinemas on September 30 before coming to the US on October 8–tickets are on sale now. True Detective’s Cary Joji Fukunaga directed No Time To Die, which features Oscar winner Rami Malek as the villain. Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Jeffrey Wright, Naomie Harris, and Rory Kinnear all return from earlier entries, while Lynch (Captain Marvel) and Ana de Armas (Knives Out) join the cast.
Outside of the film series, the developers of the Hitman video game franchise are making a James Bond game that will tell an original origin story for the British superspy.
