The actor reflected on the 'No Time To Die' ending
In case you haven't seen the latest Bond movie, look away now as this post is full of spoilers.
Daniel Craig has opened up about James Bond biting the bullet at the end of 'No Time To Die', revealing it was his idea to end the action hero's fate far earlier.
While joined by his Bond co-star Javier Bardem in a video interview, Variety managed to sit down with both actors to discuss their time in MGM's 007 franchise.
While praising Craig's final performance in the titular role, whereby the character sacrifices himself in order to save his family, Bardem praised the actor for showing the character's human side as all of the previous movies culminated in Bond's final scene. Craig thanks his former co-star before revealing that he originally wanted the agent to die during this first outing in 2006.
He said: "I had this idea. I wanted to kill him off a long time ago, in 'Casino Royale', for all sorts of reasons. One purely egotistical, which was that I felt like I needed to end what I did on it, and that I would only be satisfied if I could walk away and there was nowhere else for that to go.
"That someone else would have to come along and invent something completely different. But I knew the only way to make it work was that it had to be based in love. In 'Skyfall', it’s the story of his love for Judi [Dench], which is complicated and toxic. And every time we’ve concentrated on love, it’s paid dividends.
"Madeleine [Léa Seydoux] was undiscovered in the previous film. And she was enigmatic, and I felt like that relationship was there for the discovery. They were flawed human beings, and of course, they were madly in love with each other. When we’d done that, I really understood it.
"I just said, 'I’ve got to enjoy this', you know? I’ve sometimes not enjoyed it. I’ve sometimes been too hardworking."
On working opposite Bardem in 'Skyfall', Craig said it was "a dream come true". The Spanish actor played the villainous role of Raoul Silva in Bond's 23rd outing, a former M16 agent with close connections to M. Craig said of their time spent filming together: "Getting the chance to work with you was a dream come true. You go, 'Can we ask him? He’ll probably say no.' You said yes. I’ve missed you ever since."
The next movie we'll see Daniel Craig in will be in Rian Johnson's whodunnit sequel 'Knives Out 2'. On that, Craig revealed that the star-studded production is currently in its editing stage and should be released this autumn. Expect Netflix to give a concrete release date in the future.