Daniel Craig's last outing as James Bond in No Time To Die arrives this year, with the actor offering numerous reasons as to why he's quitting the iconic role. The Bond franchise is set to undergo yet another revamp following the 25th installment. No Time To Die will mark Daniel Craig's last appearance as 007, following a series of successful movies that have revitalized the nearly 60-year-old franchise for a modern audience.

There's been no word just yet on who will be the next Bond, but speculation is rife about which actor will take up Craig's mantle. Beginning with 2006's Casino Royale, Craig has appeared in five Bond movies which have both reinvented the character and brought the series back to its roots by reintroducing classic 007 tropes. Following what many considered an anti-climax with 2008's Quantum of Solace, Craig's Bond underwent the softest of reboots in 2012 with Skyfall, which saw the death of Judi Dench's M and the reintroduction of Q-Branch, Moneypenny, and a male M in the form of Ralph Fiennes. Skyfall's follow-up Spectre attempted to retcon the Spectre group into the previous Craig-led movies and ultimately wasn't considered the best entry in the modern series, Now, with the Cary Fukunaka-directed No Time To Die looking set to fix many of Spectre's mistakes, things are looking good for Daniel Craig's swan song as Bond.

Related: How James Bond Became 007 (& How Its Meaning Has Changed)

Despite the unevenness of Spectre, the 007 franchise is generally looking fairly healthy – at least in comparison to how it looked following the mistakes of Die Another Day – so why is Craig bowing out now? Aside from saying he believes "someone else needs to have a go" in the role, the actor has also spoken at length about his decision to finally step down. In a GQ interview, he said his return was “just not going to happen," explaining he saw other things as more important: “I don’t know what it is, maybe having another kid, maybe just being older. But all of these things, I was just like, you know, f**k it. There are other things that are more important.”

Daniel Craig in No Time to Die

Craig, who originally passed on the role of James Bond, has previously called his return to the series into question. After the release of Spectre, he notoriously complained about doing another Bond film. He has since taken back those comments and will, of course, be appearing in No Time To Die – which this time has been confirmed as Craig's final Bond movie. The actor has also made clear that he wasn't happy with Spectre, which likely contributed to his dramatic wrist-slashing comment years ago. In a 2019 Empire interview, Craig said: "it felt like we needed to finish something off. If I’d left it at Spectre, something at the back of my head would have been going, ‘I wish I’d done one more'."

It seems Craig had been considering leaving the franchise for some time, but was drawn back after the lackluster Spectre ignited a desire to provide a more fitting finale for his version of Bond – that, and producer Barbara Broccoli reportedly helped talk Craig into returning. Following the completion of No Time To Die, the actor obviously feels he's made up for the previous entry and is happy to depart from the series. On top of all that, while he's not quite the oldest Bond actor – Roger Moore took that distinction with his final appearance in A View To A Kill at the age of 57 – at 52, Craig is among the oldest actors to portray Bond. And after suffering a knee injury during the filming of Spectre, and another ankle injury during No Time To Die's production, it seems likely the actor felt a natural urge to step away from the role as he got older.

More: No Time To Die: What Needs To Happen To End Daniel Craig's Bond Story

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