To date, there have been a total of 25 James Bond films spanning 59 years. Despite the spy’s ever-changing face and personality, many of the franchise’s core traits have remained consistent over the decades, even during the Daniel Craig era. But the most recent installment, 2021’s No Time to Die, broke with tradition in a way that will cause narrative problems for the next installment. The film’s antagonist, Lyutsifer Safin, accomplished what dozens of other villains tried and failed to do: kill Bond.
Safin infected the agent with Heracles, a nanotechnological virus that could be programmed to only affect certain individuals, in this case, Madeleine and Mathilde Swann. This meant that Bond could not go anywhere near his loved ones without risk of killing them. He therefore chose to remain in Safin’s base while it was destroyed by a missile strike, ensuring that Heracles could never spread. His demise was as unambiguous as it could be in a PG-13 film, and the question of where the story will go from here looms large over the franchise.
No Time to Die Ended James Bond’s Character Arc
Before No Time to Die, Bond’s story had never definitively ended. Though he was frequently recast, one could imagine each version of Bond going on to have many more adventures after his final film concluded. Before the Craig era, the franchise was largely episodic, with each installment simply being another day in the life of MI6’s top operative.
Even in the novels that inspired the films, Bond never met his demise. Author Ian Fleming strongly considered it, even ending From Russia With Love in a way that strongly implied Bond’s death, but he was revealed to be alive in Dr. No. The No Time to Die film was thus a major departure from the series’ status quo, and it poses a challenge for the next film. This problem was recently discussed by Anthony Horowitz, who wrote a trilogy of official James Bond novels starting in 2015.
Horowitz told Radio Times, “The last time we saw Bond, he was poisoned and blown to smithereens — how will they get past the fact he is Dead with a capital D? I think that was a mistake, because Bond is a legend. He belongs to everybody, he is eternal — except in that film. If I was asked tomorrow to write the script, I wouldn’t be able to do it. Where would you start? You can’t have him waking up in the shower and saying it was all a dream.” There are three possible solutions, each coming with its own benefits and drawbacks.
How Will the James Bond Franchise Proceed After No Time to Die?
The next film could simply reboot the series again or return to the loose continuity shared by the pre-Casino Royale films. Some prior Bond actors, including Pierce Brosnan, have expressed a willingness to return to the role. Even if just for one film, this would clearly denote to audiences that Craig’s story was a temporary break from the original James Bond canon. However, since Craig had the longest tenure of any Bond, many fans would be disappointed if the past two decades of stories were entirely swept aside.
Alternatively, the next film could recast Bond but continue the storyline of the Craig films by revealing that the character somehow survived. While any number of sci-fi technologies could be used to excuse his return, such a twist would necessitate major suspension of disbelief from viewers. It would also feel cheap, ruining the themes of loss and sacrifice that were so central to No Time to Die. If Bond were to recover from being “poisoned and blown to smithereens,” it would remove the deadly stakes of all future James Bond projects.
Lastly and most controversially, the next film could shift focus to a different character taking up the mantle of 007 following Bond’s death. The filmmakers could play it somewhat safe by having the next protagonist be very similar to Bond, maybe even confirming the popular fan theory that “James Bond” is an alias shared by several agents.
Or, if the filmmakers wanted to more substantially shake up the status quo, they could make the new protagonist very different from Bond, such as by committing to the long-rumored female-led James Bond project. Though shifting attention to a different spy would require jumping through the fewest narrative hoops, it would also be the riskiest choice, because Bond himself is a major component of the franchise’s popularity.
The Next James Bond Film Faces an Uphill Battle
Regardless of which option is chosen, there may be less interest in James Bond following No Time to Die. By giving the character a definitive ending, it provided viewers with a reason to stop engaging with the franchise. Something similar happened with the Marvel Cinematic Universe; Avengers: Endgame was such a climactic conclusion to the previous decade of storytelling that no films since have been able to garner as much attention as those from the MCU’s first few phases.
These challenges are one of the reasons that it has been so long since the last James Bond film. The longest gap between installments was the period of six years that passed between Licence to Kill and Goldeneye, and it seems as if this record will soon be broken. 2027 will mark six years since No Time to Die, and because the next James Bond film does not yet have a complete script, odds are slim that it will be released so soon.
No matter how long it takes or how difficult the story proves to write, new James Bond projects are inevitable. Amazon purchased full control of the franchise in 2025 and is eager to make use of the brand. While fans are waiting, the upcoming video game 007 First Light will be able to give them their fill of British spy action. Though Craig’s version of Bond may have died, the character’s legacy never will.
- Created by
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Ian Fleming
- Latest Film
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No Time to Die
- Cast
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Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Connery, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, David Niven, George Lazenby
- Character(s)
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James Bond