Daniel Craig Pitched No Time To Die Ending at Casino Royale’s Premiere

WARNING: Spoilers follow for No Time to Die.

No Time to Die marked Daniel Craig’s final film as James Bond, and Craig recently revealed that he pitched the end of his Bond’s arc after Casino Royale. In the final film, which released in October, 007 dies after saving the world (again). Speaking on the Awards Chatter podcast, Craig opened up about why he wanted that to happen and how he offered Sam Mendes the directing gig for Skyfall. You can see some highlights below, courtesy of the Playlist:

On offering Mendes Skyfall at Hugh Jackman‘s Christmas party: “I was definitely a little drunk, Sam turned up late and I hadn’t seen him for years, I hadn’t seen him since Road To Perdition. Sam sat down and we were having a drink together and it just dawned on me, it was just like one of those [moments]. We were [already] having conversations about directors…and it just became glaringly obvious to me sitting opposite him. I thought, ‘Of course.’ And so I just basically went, ‘I’m probably not supposed to say this, but do you want to direct the next Bond movie?’

“And he just did this thing, he kinda just looked at me [and squinted] and said, ‘Yes.’ And then I went, ‘I’m in shit now.’ I’m sure there is someone I have to talk to about that before I go offering directors jobs. It’s not my responsibility, but I was drunk!”

On telling producer Barbara Broccoli about it: “I phoned up Barbara the following moment thinking, ‘Oh god, here we go, I’m going to be in shit now. I said, ‘I think I offered Sam Mendes the directing job last night. [She said] ‘Amazing, great.'”

On when he pitched the idea of killing Bond: “I was driving with Barbara [Broccoli] in the back of a limousine away from the Berlin premiere of Casino Royale, and we were in a good mood because things were going well. Somehow, the movie was successful. People were enjoying it and I thought, ‘Oh, I didn’t have enough time to talk to the producer.’ And I’d had this plan in my head. And I just said to her, ‘How many movies do I have to make?’ Because I didn’t know because I never look at the contract. She said, ‘Four.’ I said, ‘O.K.’ I said, ‘Can I kill him off at the end of the fourth one, please?’ It wasn’t the fourth one, but it’s the fifth one. And she said, ‘Yes.’ She said yes.”

On why he wanted to do it: “And I had it there for a number of reasons. I wanted for many reasons. One, because I felt like it would be a good ending for me, personally, so I could move on. I could say, ‘O.K, I can’t go back to that. This is it.’ I was trying to protect my future in my head because I realized how much this was going to change my life when I was trying to grab some control and say, ‘O.K, right now I can move to a point and work to that point, then I’ll be good with this.’”