It’s been the most frustrating ‘will he or won’t he?’ debate of the last several years, but tonight, it appears that it’s at an end. Daniel Craig has finally confirmed that he’ll be back for Bond 25. The actor appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert a few hours ago where he told the talk show host that he’ll be returning for one more round as 007, though wouldn’t give any other details as to what we can expect from his final outing as the iconic character.
This announcement is a bit surprising, as it comes only several hours after Craig played coy about suiting up as Bond again when asked about it during an interview with a Boston radio station. In case you missed it, he said the following when questioned on if he’d be signing on for Bond 25:
“No decision has been made at the moment, there’s a lot of noise out there and nothing official has been confirmed and I’m not, like, holding out for more money or doing anything like that. It’s just all very personal decisions to be made at the moment… I know they’re desperate to get going and I would in theory love to do it, but there is no decision, uh, just yet.”
What spurred Craig to finally make his decision public earlier tonight is unknown, but it’s out in the open now and we can finally put an end to all the speculation – of which there’s been a lot of. Then again, having portrayed Ian Fleming’s super-spy four times already (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and Spectre), all signs pointed to Craig returning as Bond for one final outing.
The British actor still has a two-picture contract to fulfill, after all, and though there had been much back-and-forth regarding his commitment to MGM’s flagship franchise – Kingsman: The Golden Circle star Mark Strong even went on record to claim that Daniel Craig was ready to retire his license to kill following the less-than-stellar Spectre – it’s now over. And not a moment too soon.
The 25th instalment in MGM’s legendary James Bond franchise hits U.S. theaters on November 8th, 2019. As things stand, it’s set to open alongside a live-action fairytale movie from Disney, the details of which are yet to be unveiled.
