With no shortage of acting and producing credits to his name, star Daniel Craig continues to have quite an impressive career in entertainment. In addition to his many starring roles, one character he's well-known for portraying is the iconic 007. For his part, the Cowboys & Aliens actor starred as James Bond in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die. More recently, Variety reported that Craig discussed his choice to leave the famous character while chatting with Martha Kearney on BBC Radio's Best of Today podcast.
During their talk, Craig discussed killing off his iconic character with the James Bond franchise producer, Barbara Broccoli. In Craig's final film as Bond, 007 appeared to have been blown up on an island at the end of No Time to Die.
When asked if he had any regrets about leaving the role, Craig told Kearney, "No, none at all." He went on to say, "I had an incredibly fortunate 17 years of my life making this. I literally want to spend the next 20 years of my life trying to unhook it all and try and put it into a place because it was incredible. I left it where I wanted it to be. And that I was given the chance to do that with the last movie."
Daniel Craig Says James Bond Isn't Really Dead
Then, when asked if 007 had really been killed off, Craig reassured James Bond fans by saying, "He's not really dead. I'm gone, but it says right at the end [of No Time to Die] that Bond will return, so he must return at some point."
In regards to reinventing the character, Craig said, "I don't know if it sounds disingenuous, I said to Barbara a long time ago, back in 2006, 'If I do all of these movies, and we get it right, can we kill him off,' and she said, 'Yes, you can.' And I was thinking about myself, about my postponed career and I was trying to think of how that would work and but I was also thinking what they did with 'Casino Royale' – they had the chance to reset with that because they went back to the beginning. I thought you'll have a chance to reset again. That kind seems to be like a good move."
Previously, while speaking about his character's implicated death, Craig told the U.K. publication The Times, "Real tragedy is when you have absolutely no choice. We had to find a way to make his death no choice. It was the happiest Bond had ever been because he'd found exactly what he was looking for. Like everyone on Earth, he was just looking for love."
Craig has since moved on to star in the Knives Out franchise, with the second film in the series, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery dropping on Netflix on Dec. 23.