There’s still no time for No Time to Die to play in theaters.
The latest James Bond movie – officially the final outing for Daniel Craig as 007 – has reportedly been delayed once again, according to Deadline. The trade shared the disappointing but hardly surprising news this Tuesday, writing that several sources have informed them that MGM has elected to remove it from its planned April release and push it back to some unknown date in the fall.
Last year, No Time to Die broke ground as the first major pic to be delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It was set for April 2020 but MGM, who are in charge of domestic distribution, and Universal, who are carrying it internationally, moved it back to November instead. Then, when it became clear that the global situation hadn’t improved as much as hoped by that time, it was held off until April 2021. Well, here we are in January and it’s plain to see that cinemas will still not be in healthy shape by Easter. So, outside of a streaming release, this was the only decision to be made.
Deadline was unable to say exactly when in the fall it could now arrive, but their report does note that Dutch exhibitor Carlo Lambregts claims MGM is eyeing up November again. This would make sense, too, as that month is Bond’s typical release window, but it’s worth pointing out that November also delivers two other blockbusters that could prove to be big competition – Marvel’s Eternals and, interestingly, fellow spy flick Mission: Impossible 7.Â
It’s known that MGM did initially field offers from streaming services to land the movie, but their steep asking price of $600 million for the rights meant that came to nothing. In any case, James Bond will return, that much you can be sure of. But right now, we don’t know exactly when.
