Daniel Craig gives brilliantly blunt response over next James Bond

Daniel Craig has had the longest stretch as James Bond, starring in five films starting with Casino Royale in 2006 and ending with No Time To Die in 2021.  

His tenure as the sixth Bond actor has gone down well with fans, with many decreeing that he is the best 007, so it’s hardly a hot take to say that Barbara Broccoli & Co. are going to have a hard time replacing the 56-year-old. 

There have been several rumours circulating as to who will don over the coveted tux, with the likes of Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill and Michael Fassbender frequently mentioned in correlation to the iconic role. Currently, the speculated favourite seems to be 33-year-old actor Aaron-Taylor Johnson. Still, it would seem that fans will have to wait a bit longer for an official announcement for the 26th Bond film – a wait which is fueling further speculation.   

When asked in a recent interview with Variety “If you were to pass the James Bond torch, who would you love to see play him?”, Craig gave a brutal (but fair) response.  

“I don’t care.” 

Well, there you have it.  

Craig has moved on from his Bond days and is currently promoting his new movie, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year.  

The film was one of our favourites from this year’s Venice. It’s an adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel in which Craig plays a needy, restless and awkwardly grandiloquent Burroughs avatar, William Lee. He's an outcast American expat who pines for an elusive younger man (Drew Starkey) in 1940s Mexico. 

We wrote: “When it comes to best male lead performances this year on the Lido, Daniel Craig was the one to beat. He bafflingly missed out on the top acting prize, which was awarded to Vincent Lindon in the strong but more pedestrian The Quiet Son. However, don’t be surprised if Oscar nominations are around the corner for the former James Bond actor. (...) Featuring all the sensuality Guadagnino has become renowned for, as well as some mesmerising visuals and meaningfully anachronistic needle drops, Queer is daring and nothing short of fascinating to watch unfold. Read our full review. 

Queer is set to be released in limited theatres in the US at the end of the month (27 November) and in the UK on 13 December. Mainland Europe will have to wait until the beginning of 2025.

Elsewhere, Craig is set to return as detective Benoit Blanc in the upcoming Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, also set to be released next year.  

The release of third instalment in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out saga is proving to be a bit of a sore point for Craig, who is urging Netflix to go for a proper theatrical release as opposed to a streaming drop on the platform. 

Craig told Variety: “Hopefully, Netflix will push it out a bit, and people will get to see it. The people I speak to — the fans, I suppose — all they want to do is take their families and go see it at the cinemas. That’s all they want to do. Hopefully we can give them that experience.” 

The first film in the series, Knives Out, was released by Lionsgate in 2019 and became a box office hit. Netflix made a deal with writer/director Johnson to produce two sequels for the platform. The first follow-up, 2022’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, made history as the first Netflix movie to screen in AMC and Regal locations after the streamer partnered with AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark.

Glass Onion opened in 600 theaters in the US; however, it only stayed on the big screen for one week.  

Let’s hope Craig gets his wish for the third Knives Out adventure... And that an official Bond announcement is forthcoming. That said, we’re not holding our breath.