No Time to Die has become one of the biggest films during the pandemic era, not only due to its box office performance but the way it concludes Daniel Craig's James Bond story with an emotional send off. Now, the film's director, Cary Joji Fukunaga, opened up about the film's ending and what he tried to avoid the most.
In a new interview with Empire, Fukunaga recalled that Bond's death was always the plan from the start, but that the main trouble was figuring out how he and the rest of the writers would go about it. “In my first meeting with Daniel and the producers, they said that’s how they wanted the story,” Fukunaga shared. “They felt that was an ending. I was like, ‘Well, it’s a result of an ending, but we don’t know what happens. It has to be earned.’”
Fukunaga would share that while he tried to avoid any distastefulness or crudeness for Bond's demise, he wanted to keep the heroic gesture intact. “I wasn’t trying to be obtuse with it,” Fukunaga added. “I wanted to be clear with it. But I wanted it to be tasteful. We didn’t want that shot in Terminator 2 where you see Sarah Connor turning into bones. But we wanted to show that he wasn’t going to jump down a sewer at the last second. So that wider shot of the island being pummelled was a mixture of macro and micro. The full effect is, ‘Yes, he’s gone, but he succeeded in making sure none of that weapons would go on into the future.’”
Fukunaga would further add that when looking at the film's final shot of Madeleine and Mathilde driving off into the sunset, that ending felt like the most closure for the character and the story. It’s that last sentence in a paragraph in the last chapter of a book, just to try to make it feel satisfying," Fukunaga said. One compelling aspect to No Time to Die and Craig's Bond films overall are the stories being interlinked, something that is definitely not used in previous Bond installments. While those films would have recurring characters, each film presented a new narrative with fresh stakes. Having various plot points and characters collide in these newer films is definitely a huge reason why the Craig Bond era stands out the most and why No Time to Die offers a more compelling, emotionally invested story.
Now with Craig's Bond era complete, the questions that have been on many fans' minds is what will be next for the Bond franchise storywise and who will fill the role as the iconic 007 agent? Many fans have speculated that veteran actors like Tom Hardy or Idris Elba could potentially take on the role, with others hoping that the ongoing James Bond franchise goes in a fresh direction by choosing someone younger. Either way, fans will have to wait and see because long-time Bond producer Barbara Broccoli has already confirmed in a recent interview that casting for the next James Bond film will not begin for quite a while in order to allow Craig to celebrate his achievements.
Either way, it will surely be a tough feat to surpass Craig's portrayal, especially in No Time to Die. Craig's 5th Bond installment takes place a few years after the events of Spectre and follows the globe-trotting James Bond on his next mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist and save the world from a mysterious villain who's armed with advanced technology. The film also stars Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Rami Malek as Lyutsifer Safin, Lashana Lynch as Nomi, Ralph Fiennes as M, Ben Whishaw as Q, Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, Billy Magnussen as Logan Ash, Ana de Armas as Paloma, Christoph Waltz as Ernest Stavro Blofeld, and David Dencik as Valdo Obruchev.
Source: Empire