Has Mark Strong just confirmed that Daniel Craig is quitting James Bond?
The actor says Craig has done everything he wanted to with 007 and won't stick around to die another day
Has Daniel Craig completed his final mission as James Bond? Well, his good friend Mark Strong certainly seems to think that Spectre was Criag's final outing as 007.
“Do you know what, I’d have loved to have played the villain in a Bond movie while Daniel was doing it because he’s a pal and that would have been great. But I think he’s come to the end of his Bond time and so it’s probably never going to happen, but that would have always been great,” Strong told ShortList.
“Having played so many villains, it would have been wonderful to have done the villain of villains, if you like. Because a Bond villain has a status all of his own,” he added.
Strong starred with Craig in BBC drama Our Friends in the North, and the Bond star is godfather to Strong's eldest child.
Strong said he'd certainly do what he could to convince Craig to return to the silver screen as the famous British agent, but hinted that there “powers at work greater than us who make all these decisions.”
Craig had been rumoured to depart as Bond after Spectre, and when he made some rather outrageous comments about his reluctance to return to the role there was a bit of a hullabaloo in the acting world.
Nevertheless, his term as the franchise’s leading man hasn’t done his career any harm. It’s just that now, according to Strong at least, he’s looking for a change of scenery.
“He has been [wonderful] and he’s loved it. But I think he feels like he’s mined it. He’s done what he wants with it. That point has come.”
We’re shaken by Strong’s claims but, until it comes from the horse’s mouth, we’re not stirred.
