Daniel Craig Will Be James Bond For One Last Time

After months of speculation, Daniel Craig finally confirmed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that he will be playing James Bond, a.k.a. 007, for one last time.

“I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists.” That was Daniel Craig’s infamous response when Time Out asked him whether he’d be up for playing Bond again. This then spurred months, no years, of speculation as to who would be playing 007 next. Idris Elba, Michael Fassbender, Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston (please God, no!)… Well, it now seems that all those potential Bond actors will have a to wait a few more years because Craig’s finally put an end to all the rumours by confirming on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that he’ll be playing the British spy one last time.

Colbert waisted no time in asking Craig to elaborate on his position with the Bond franchise. “I have been quite cagey about it. I have been doing interviews all day and people have been asking me and I think I’ve been rather coy. But kind of felt like if I was going to speak the truth I should speak truth to you,” Craig began. Colbert then said, “Daniel Craig, we could use some good news here… Daniel Craig, will you return as James Bond?” To which he replied with a simple, “Yes.”

The audience went wild, as did the Internet with this peice of news quickly trending on Twitter and media outlets around the globe writing articles entitled such things as: Daniel Craig confirms he will play James Bond again (The Guardian), Daniel Craig Confirms Return to James Bond Role (The Hollywood Reporter), and The Daily Mail adopted their trademark punny style with their headline, No need to be shaken or stirred! Daniel Craig confirms he WILL return as James Bond… after claiming things were ‘up in the air’.

During the interview Craig admitted he’s known for “a couple of months” that he would be reprising the role of 007. “We’ve been discussing it, we’ve just been trying to figure things out,” he explained. The British actor then added, “I always wanted to, I needed a break,” which sparked some jokey banter between himself and Colbert in relation to Craig’s “slash my wrists” quote.

However, Craig tried to explain the circumstances which resulted in his rather poor choice of words. “There’s no point making excuses about it, but it was two days after I had finished shooting the last movie and I went straight to an interview where someone asked, ‘Would you do another one?’ and I went, ‘No!’,” said Craig. However, he did admit that he could have expressed his feeling “with style and grace” and that he gave “a really stupid answer.”

Daniel Craig as Bond in Spectre

I just want to go out on a high note, and I can’t wait.

Craig then finished the interview by confirming that this will be his last time playing James Bond. “I just want to go out on a high note, and I can’t wait.” In all, I’m excited to see what Craig delivers with his final turn as 007, yet I can’t help but feel saddened by the fact that this probably means we won’t get to see Idris Elba or Michael Fassbender play Bond since they might be considered to be too old for the role once the chance finally arises; they’re currently 44 and 40 years of age respectively. However, it puts Tom Hardy (39) as the front-runner to be cast as the next Bond since he’s a tad younger than both of them, albeit marginally.

There’s no title yet for the next Bond movie, which will be the 25th official film in the long-running franchise, however it is slated for a November 8th, 2019 release.