Okay, now it’s official: Daniel Craig will be returning for another James Bond film.
“Yes,” Craig answered bluntly when Colbert pressed him on the news. It’s the first straight-up answer that Craig has given concerning his return as the character since 2015’s Spectre, coming at the end of a day where he had earlier told a Boston radio show that no decision had been made. (Craig apparently wanted to hold out and break the news to Colbert.) The actor also said that it would be his last Bond film.
“I always wanted to [come back]. I needed a break,” Craig began before the host interjected and quoted Craig’s harsh response in a 2015 interview, in which he said “I’d rather slash my wrists than play James Bond again.” Craig turned red and sheepishly laughed, at one point pretending to look for a place to hide behind his chair.
His return as Bond has been rumored to have been a done deal for the past month. In early June, an anonymous source told the Mirror that Craig was all but confirmed, and a couple of weeks later, after Eon Productions and MGM Studios announced the next Bond flick’s release date, an anonymous source told the New York Times that Craig would be returning.
The 25th official Bond film—Craig’s fifth—is slated for release on Nov. 8, 2019.
