James Bond 25's title has been officially revealed as No Time To Die, which offers up some clues and reveals about the film's story. Bond 25, which was previously going under the title Shatterhand, is scheduled for release next year, and will see Daniel Craig reprising his role as James Bond for the final time.
Although much of the story is being kept under wraps, it's also been revealed that Bond 25 will start with him retired in Jamaica, before being brought back into the fold by Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), who puts him on a mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist, which then leads to far more danger than expected. No Time To Die, then, is likely to tie into that operation, which makes it sound pretty ominous for James Bond.
A number of previous Bond movies have referenced death, such as You Only Live Twice and Die Another Day, which makes this something of a throwback title after the likes of Skyfall and Spectre. The two former movies had titles that tied into the movie's respective's plots, which isn't uncommon for Bond, so we can expect No Time To Die to somehow factor into the story of Bond 25 in quite an overt way. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond says "...all the time in the world" before Blofeld kills Tracy, and this has echoes of that. With Christoph Waltz's Blofeld returning in Bond 25, then it hints at another showdown between the pair, and perhaps another murder from the villain - maybe Léa Seydoux's Dr Madeline Swann, or Ana de Armas' Paloma.
Above all, what it does is raise the topic of finality: we know this is Craig's last outing, and that's something Bond 25 is going to have to seriously reckon with. It'd make sense if the movie's marketing - and thus title - did that too, because billing this as Craig's final time as Bond is an even greater hook than simply being a new James Bond movie. Whether this actually means they'll kill him off or not remains to be seen, but it does suggest that they're playing into it and know they're going to deliver a satisfying ending for this iteration of the character.
Bond 25's title was previously reported as being A Reason To Die, and while that's even heavier on the looming sense of finality, No Time To Die does put a different, vaguer spin on it, but also perhaps suggests shifting away from killing him off into a more hopeful ending for James Bond as he is able to truly retire for good. Of course, it's very likely that No Time To Die will have multiple meanings in Bond 25. It speaks to the early part of the film, which finds Bond enjoying his retirement, meaning this is no time for him to die because he's finally living. It could be a plea, with someone else coming close to dying. It's easy to imagine someone saying this to James Bond, or him saying it about Dr. Swann, Lashana Lynch's new 007, or one of the many other returning characters.
On the topic of Lynch's character, then No Time To Die might well be a reference to James Bond's relationship to her, assuming that the notion she is playing 007 is correct. It could be about the fact that he is called back into action when all he really wants is to be retired and allowed a peaceful death, but it's also about the codename 007: even if he has retired, the 007 moniker itself lives on without him - it has no time to die because the MI6 always needs a new one.
Alternatively, it might even be a threat, with Blofeld or some other villain - perhaps Rami Malek's - holding Bond captive, but refusing to kill him, instead preferring to keep him alive for other nefarious means. It could also suggest a fast-paced nature to the plot, and a mission that involves a race against time to stop the villain, which is fairly typical Bond fare. There are various intonations you can give to change the intent of the phrase, which makes No Time To Die a good Bond 25 title. The film, which is being directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, will be released on April 8, 2020.
