Yahoo News Why Bond 25 needs to be Daniel Craig's last 007 movie
It's official: Daniel Craig will definitely be returning for Bond 25, which is due to hit our screens in Autumn 2019. It feels like he's been ummming and aahhing about it for years, but now the decision is made, we're glad.
As long as this is his last one.
Bond 25 will be Craig's fifth outing as 007. And by our estimations he's so far done two good ones (Casino Royale and Skyfall) and two not so good ones (Quantum of Solace and Spectre). Taking on a fifth should give him a chance for the swansong he deserves, a final sign-off that won't leave us with the slightly bitter taste we got from Spectre. And that's cool. But he's going to want to call it a day after that.
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Craig joined the franchise for Casino Royale,released in 2006, a Bond reboot that promised to take us back to classic Fleming, and which delivered in spades. Craig was 38 when the movie came out and he was the perfect, rugged, refreshing incarnation – a handsome blond (shocker!) who felt modern and real.
Eleven years later, Craig is 49. When Bond 25 comes out he'll be 51.
Brosnan was 49 when his last Bond movie came out. Connery was 41 (okay, he was 53 for Never Say Never Again, but that one doesn't count). Timothy Dalton was 43. And although Roger Moore was 57 by the time his run came to an end – an almighty seven movies – most people would agree that by the end he really was too old for the part.
And this isn't just us being horribly ageist.
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Part of the reason the Bond franchise has managed to endure longer than any other is its continuing ability (and need) to reinvent itself. Each Bond is a reboot, each new Bond is timely and belongs to a generation, and a moment in history. If one Bond sticks around too long, he starts to grow irrelevant and obsolete.
Craig was a revelation when he burst onto screens in 2006. But come 2021 (which is likely to be the soonest we'd see a Bond 26) we'll be living in a totally different world.
Craig's Bond was exactly who we needed in 2006: shaking off the invisible cars and slick, witty, gentleman-Bond persona of Pierce Brosnan's secret agent, Craig was a man's man, a scrappy brawler who felt real. Following on from the sophisticated action thrills of The Bourne Identity in 2002, we wouldn't have accepted anything less.
But things have moved on, and will certainly do so again by the time a Bond 26 comes around. Let's face it, things in the real world are pretty bleak. And after Nolan's Dark Knight franchise and two too many Bourne movies, we're a bit over "gritty".
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Every new Bond is a reaction to the last, and it could be approaching a time when we dispense with grit and go back to a bit of escapism and, dare we say it, fun.
But Craig doesn't really do fun (or at least not as Bond). He was clearly uncomfortable with Spectre's more outlandish tone – its silent henchman and super-villain hiding in an underground lair. He didn't look like he was enjoying it. And the now infamous "I'd rather slash my wrists" comment Craig made to Time Out at the time indicates he probably wasn't.
Rather than push his Bond to new heights of ridiculousness, though, we strongly suspect his (hopefully) final Bond will give him a chance to relive his gritty beginning. Certainly the time he spent in negotiations, and his insistence that this was nothing to do with money, suggests he's only doing Bond 25 because he wants to.
"I just want to go out on a high note," he said, when he made the announcement on The Late Show. And we want that for him. And then for him to walk away after that.
This Christmas we will see our very first female Doctor in Doctor Who, a Brit institution fronted by men since 1963. Despite the odd dissenting voice, audiences seem to be up for it. There has long been talk of diversifying Bond, too – will we finally see a female Bond or a non-white Bond?
In a world where a top-tier director like Christopher Nolan can reinvent the superhero movie, or David Fincher sign on for zombie sequel World War Z 2, genre films don't need to be part of a sub-culture. Indeed, Nolan recently told Digital Spy in an interview for his Oscar-baiting historical war movie Dunkirk that the only way he'd do Bond (and he'd love to) is if he could reinvent it.
A reinvention is what's needed, and that means no more Craig.
After Craig goes, everything is up for grabs. The world is changing and Bond needs to change with it.
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