James Bond No Time To Die leaves the door open for Daniel Craig comeback | Films | Entertainment
WARNING: This article contains full spoilers for No Time To Die.
Daniel Craig wanted to quit playing James Bond after his fourth 007 movie, Spectre, back in 2015. But Bond bosses Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson urged him to come back for one final film. He agreed, but on one condition: he wanted to kill Bond; something that had never been done before. But that doesn’t mean Craig can’t make a comeback in the next film in the franchise – but you’re going to have to stick with me here.
No Time To Die, the final Craig-led James Bond movie broke the mould in a few ways. Halfway through the film, it was revealed that his version of 007 had a daughter – Mathilde – with his longtime lover Dr Madeleine Swann. To make matters worse, she was soon after kidnapped by international supervillain Safin.
After this double-hit of unexpected news, Bond’s focus shifted. Not only was he now going to save the world for Queen and country, but he also needed to save his daughter – whatever means necessary.
But during this exciting rescue mission, Bond was infected with a powerful nanobot nerve agent which would lock on to whomever’s DNA had been uploaded into it. Unfortunately for James, Safin put Mathilde and Madeleine’s DNA in the crosshairs, meaning the briefest touch would kill them.
So, to keep them safe, he arranged an airstrike on Safin’s island, killing him, and the deadly nanobots with him. But his story may not be over.
The final moments of the film’s credits displayed the ominous message: “James Bond will return.”
Of course, the original James Bond is dead and gone, at this point. There is no way he could come back… naturally, anyway. Instead, futuristic technology could come into play for the next step of the series.
Q and the rest of MI6 have already been experimenting with nanobots (hell, Safin’s weapon was revealed to be M’s secret project to begin with). So perhaps they were cooking up something else, as well?
What I’m getting at is: Daniel Craig’s version of 007 could make a surprise comeback with the use of cloning technology.
Safin teased the use of absurdly innovative biological technology, and some of his war rooms were filled with tanks – iconography often used in movies to showcase cloning and tissue repair (Star Wars, The Fly… etc).
This concept, coupled with one of the most memorable quotes from Casino Royale, could lead to the sixth Daniel Craig James Bond movie. Who could forget Vesper Lynd pointing out: “If all that was left of you was your smile and your little finger, you’d still be more of a man than anyone I’ve ever met.”
Do you think a mad scientist would need anything more than a little finger to clone Bond? I don’t.
Furthermore, this exact concept has actually been publicly spoken about by a Bond writer, Robert Wade.
Wade spoke about Bond’s return during the release window of No Time To Die. He said: “I think the clues are clearly there in Casino Royale, when [Vesper] says: ‘I love you, even if all that was left of you was your little finger.’ That’s my theory. That’s all that’s left of [Bond] and then they clone him from that little finger.”
While this theory is certainly possible, it is not probable. Mostly because Craig has admitted he is done with playing James Bond. To bring him back would cost Eon Production a staggering amount of money.
And with that, the ongoing Bond odds are continuing to hot up. Currently, Ladbrokes has the frontrunners as Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Henry Cavill, who are neck-and-neck with 5/2. Hot on their heels is the Happy Valley star James Norton with 11/4.