By the time No Time to Die finally makes it to theaters in October, six years will have passed since the release of Spectre. While that’s a few months shy of the biggest-ever gap between James Bond movies, a record that belongs to the jump from Timothy Dalton’s License to Kill into Pierce Brosnan’s GoldenEye, it’s far and away the longest wait to see the same actor reprise the role.
It wasn’t plain sailing for the production even before the pandemic came along and upended the industry as we knew it, with Daniel Craig rumored to be walking away from 007 at various points before he signed on to return for his fifth and final outing, while Danny Boyle was hired to direct before he dropped out of the project.
Recent rumors have claimed that No Time to Die needs to earn at least $900 million simply to break even given the exorbitant costs involved in bringing the globetrotting blockbuster to life, leading to chatter that it may even be pushed to 2022 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Bond, a trick that yielded franchise-high returns for Skyfall a decade ago.
However, during a CinemaCon presentation that displayed some brand new footage exclusively for those in attendance, studio MGM have reiterated that No Time to Die is on schedule to roll out as planned on October 8th, and over a week earlier than that if you live in the United Kingdom. The next era of Bond is going to be fascinating to follow given the Amazon takeover, but hopefully the Daniel Craig era ends in suitably spectacular fashion.