After a delay, No Time to Die will be premiered in the UK in November, more than a year after filming finished. The delay came as a blow to Universal Pictures as this is the first Bond film the company has published after taking over from Columbia Pictures’ in 2015.
Fans had expected the film to be in cinemas from April this year, but this was pushed back. The new premiere is scheduled for 12th November, arriving in the United States almost two weeks later on the 25th.
Maximising Revenues
With almost $100 million expected to be made from ticket sales alone, the delay was designed to maximise the earnings potential of the new production. Pushing the release to November is hoped to boost audiences for the opening weeks of the film, particularly as the weather is likely to be suited to indoor activities.
No Time to Die
The plot of the film will see James Bond living as a civilian having left active service for MI6. However, it doesn’t take long for him to be dragged back into the world of spying when Bond’s friend, Felix Leiter, who works for the CIA requests his assistance to find an abducted scientist.
Alongside Craig, the cast includes Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Winshaw, Naomie Harris, and Jeffrey Wright.
Final Film for Daniel Craig
No Time to Die will be the last outing of Daniel Craig as 007. The 52-year-old, who is originally from Chester in the UK, has starred in five different films as Britain’s best-known spy. He made his debut in Casino Royale, a film which saw him winning a poker game with a straight flush, the second most desirable hand, invent a new cocktail known as the “Vesper Martini”, and save himself from death with a defibrillator after being poisoned.
Craig is the longest-serving James Bond, surpassing Roger Moore in October 2019. However, he hasn’t starred in as many films as some of his predecessors. After taking over from Pierce Brosnan in 2006, he has starred in a total of five Bond films. Meanwhile, the original Bond, Sean Connery, played 007 six times and Roger Moore featured in seven.
Given that Connery was churning out a film every year in the 1960s, and Moore starred in a new film every two years in the 1970s, it’s going to be difficult for any new Bond to take their records.
Four years passed between the release of Quantum of Solace in 2008 and Skyfall in 2012. Fans went without a new film for three years before Spectre was released in 2015, and No Time to Die has taken five years to make.
Who Will Be the New Bond?
It is not currently known who the next James Bond will be, although there is, as you would expect, wild speculation about who will take over from Daniel Craig.
After Jodie Whittaker replaced Peter Capaldi as The Doctor in Dr Who, and we saw an all-female remake of Ghostbusters, some speculated that there might actually be a “Jane Bond”. Gillian Anderson who played Dana Scully in The X-Files was even linked to the role in 2016.
This doesn’t seem to be the case though, as James Norton is considered to be the favourite to play Bond. Some gossip columns have reported that he has been having secret meetings with producers of the Bond franchise, with some taking place as early as 2019. As someone who looks great in a suit, it’s likely he’ll fit right in as 007 and influence fashion just as much as Daniel Craig.
Other contenders include Richard Madden, who made his name in Game of Thrones, and Idris Elba, although at 47 he’s not much younger than the retiring Craig.
It’s unlikely that the name of the new Bond will be released until after No Time to Die has hit cinema screens so as not to take too much attention away from its release. That said, it will be the question of everyone’s lips when they watch it.
What’s certain though, is that just like Daniel Craig brought a whole new feel to the films, whoever replaces him will do the same.