What would have happened if Daniel Craig's last James Bond movie had been Spectre instead of 2021’s No Time To Die? Suave superspy James Bond has been played by six actors in 24 official movie outings and soon, director Cary Fukunaga’s No Time To Die will bring that number to 25. Soon after, actor Daniel Craig’s replacement in the role is likely to be announced, as the star long ago decided this would be his swansong in the role.

However, this was not always the plan for Craig’s Bond. Before there was No Time To Die, Spectre seemed set to be the final Craig-era Bond adventure, with the actor stating he had no interest in reprising the role following the 2015 movie. Circumstances have changed since then, with numerous names being rumored as Craig’s replacement before the actor returned to the part, secured a director, filmed No Time To Die and then had to wait over a year as the sequel was repeatedly pushed back by the studio.

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Now, however, the release date of James Bond’s 25th screen outing has finally been set in stone and viewers can look forward to finally seeing Craig’s last outing as 007. However, as some super-fans marathon Bond’s back catalog pre-No Time To Die, others are understandably curious about where the series would have gone if Craig opted to stick to his guns and not return after Spectre. The 2015 outing ended on something of a cliffhanger (particularly when the Craig-era Bond movies had more inter-movie continuity than any other iteration of the character) and, for a while, director Danny Boyle was attached to a sequel that ended up falling apart before Fukunaga was approached. So, what would Bond 25 be like sans Craig?

Why Daniel Craig Almost Quit James Bond After Spectre

Daniel Craig in Spectre

Although the role of 007 always came with a level of physical risk for Craig, it was an accident during the filming of Spectre that finally saw him decide to leave the role behind. Having already garnered battle scars from earlier injuries during the filming of the confusingly titled Quantum of Solace and Skyfall, Craig was not new to taking a beating for the sake of the series. However, when Dave Bautista slammed him into a table during the train fight sequence—at Craig’s request—the actor felt his knee give way and admitted in interviews this humbling injury put him off the psychical challenges of the part. After the incident, Craig said he “checked out” while filming what would have been his last scenes as Bond, and when asked about reprising the part during Spectre’s publicity tour, the actor candidly (and infamously) joked that he’d prefer to slit his wrists.

Who Would've Been The New James Bond After Spectre

Daniel Craig James bond Tom Hardy

Some of the names that were attached to Bond when Craig first talked about leaving are still very much in the running as far as audiences - and bookmakers - are concerned. Then 39, the now-44-year-old Mad Max star Tom Hardy was sitting pretty at 7/4 back in 2015, and those odds have remained pretty consistent since. Idris Elba, meanwhile, boasted an impressive 3/1 in 2015 that has since sunk due to his involvement with numerous other high-profile projects and his advancing age. However, Homeland star Damian Lewis was rumored to replace Craig in 2015 by sources as reliable as Variety but has since fallen out of the running in most bookmakers’ odds.

Who Would Have Directed James Bond 25 If Daniel Craig Had Left

Christopher Nolan James Bond

Craig’s presence in the new outing gave shape to Cary Fukunaga’s vision for the movie, with No Time To Die representing the conclusion of this more grounded Bond’s multi-movie arc. Fukunaga even wanted No Time To Die’s action to undo Spectre’s ending, proving the helmer’s ideas are tied to Craig’s specific 007. However, without Craig in the part, it seems likely the creative clashes Danny Boyle spoke of would not have been as much of an issue, as the veteran director could have reshaped the tone of the series to his liking.

Related: Everything You Only Live Twice Changed From The James Bond Novel

Christopher Nolan and Fast & Furious franchise mastermind Justin Lin both called Tenet and Furious 6my Bond movie” respectively, fuelling speculation about the more complexly plotted and playful tones each director could have brought to the series. However, a comparatively safe blockbuster bet like Kenneth Branagh (then fresh off the Bond-lite Jack Ryan movie Shadow Recruit) or Boyle seems like the most likely choice if Craig left. That is, assuming the producers were unable to woo Bond franchise legend Martin Campbell (of Casino Royale and Goldeneye fame) into the director’s chair for one last hurrah, as he is two for two when it comes to introducing new Bond actors to the series.

How Bond 25 Without Craig Would've Been A Different Movie After Spectre

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Spectre

Keeping Craig means No Time To Die will primarily be about wrapping up the arc of his 007. This means that, although Fukunaga will bring his own style, the tone and (to an extent) the plot is already set in stone by its predecessors. However, casting a new Bond after Spectre could have let the director of Bond 25 establish an entirely new tone for the series, as radically different to Craig’s movies as Casino Royale’s brutality was to Die Another Day’s goofy camp.

007 is likely to be fun again from Bond 26 onwards, as the trend toward darker blockbusters has since been replaced by more playful and self-referential fare. This was true for 2015 too, where most of the biggest blockbusters released that year (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mission Impossible—Rogue Nation, etc) combined recognizable older series with a fresh, ironic sense of humor. This would likely have led to a James Bond that bore more of a resemblance to Pierce Brosnan’s smirking ‘90s hero than Daniel Craig’s stoic post 9/11 antihero.

Why Daniel Craig Stayed On As James Bond After Spectre

Daniel Craig as James Bond in No Time to Die

According to an interview with Esquire conducted in 2019, Craig was comfortable with the thought of ending his tenure as Bond with Spectre, but “something at the back of my head would have been going, ‘I wish I’d done one more… I always had a kind of secret idea about the whole lot in my head, and where I wanted to take it. And Spectre wasn’t that.” This sense that the character had unfinished business with the actor extended to many in the fanbase, who found the climax of Spectre lacking and wanted a clearer culmination of his time as 007. Viewers may never know how James Bond's 25ht screen incarnation would have gone without Craig, but they can at least look forward to getting that swan song when No Time To Die arrives in theatres.

More: Everything James Bond Movies Borrowed From Colonel Sun

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