Aloof. Independent. Unstoppable. In years gone by, these adjectives would have described Daniel Craig as fittingly as they did “James Bond.”
However, a set of leaked new photos from the set of No Time To Die suggest the franchise may be coming to the end of an era for a different reason to what we’ve been told.
How? Well, although Daniel Craig has told reporters, “I would rather slash my wrists than play James Bond again” (and criticised the 21st-century iteration of Bond for not being progressive enough), it turns out there may be a simpler reason behind his decision to make No Time To Die his curtain call.
He’s getting old.
Before you send us a dancing GIF of a stuntman, we don’t mean the $130 million dollar man (Daniel Craig) is not able to walk around and drink cocktails anymore (after all, Roger Moore did that until he was 58).
We mean that, in this day and age, considering how close CGI is now able to make stuntmen look like their supposed doubles (and how the franchise has become more about action than sophistication), it’s just not realistic to have us believe the 51-year-old Craig is still able to take out WWE wrestlers (see: Batista).
Indeed, one of this latest series of photos depicts Daniel Craig struggling to defeat an overweight man in what appears to be a cotton sweatshirt from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air…
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Another shows him taking a heavy fall, landing spread-eagled, sucking in some big ones (while hunched over a low wall) then looking forlornly at his directors – as if begging them not to ask him to do it again. Finally, he calls time out and takes a little lie down on the ground. Brutal scenes from the toughest Bond, ever.
This feeds into a broader narrative around how A-listers plan their twilight years. While we don’t doubt Mr Craig will put on a killer performance in No Time To Die, just how long will he be able to take hits like a heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and walk away from filming in one piece?
April 3, 2020, can’t come soon enough for Craig’s final appearance as James Bond 007.
We’re just a little bit excited.