How did Daniel Craig say goodbye to James Bond?

A recently resurfaced video captures Daniel Craig offering an emotional farewell to the crew of No Time to Die on the final day of principal photography in 2019. He thanked the team he had worked with across five films and spoke about closing the chapter on the character he had played for fifteen years. The clip quickly made the rounds when the movie finally reached theaters, underscoring how unusual it was to see Craig step away from the role that had defined so much of his career.

Daniel Craig remains the actor who held the longest uninterrupted run as James Bond. His five films took the character from origin story through a full narrative arc that ended with the death of the spy himself. That finality set his tenure apart from every previous incarnation of the role.

Casino Royale (2006)

Daniel Craig signed on after reading the script for Casino Royale, which positioned his Bond as a newly minted 00 agent learning the cost of the job. The film opened with him earning his license to kill and introduced Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre, whose brutal interrogation scene remains one of the most talked-about sequences in the entire series. Critics praised the grounded tone and Craig’s performance, and the movie has stayed near the top of franchise rankings on Rotten Tomatoes ever since.

Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), and Spectre (2015)

Quantum of Solace picked up minutes after Casino Royale and closed the Vesper arc while delivering a string of tightly edited action set pieces. Skyfall brought Bond home to his childhood estate for a finale that earned some of the strongest reviews of the Craig era and still ranks among the highest-rated entries on modern lists. Spectre leaned into classic franchise connective tissue, introducing the organization that would loom over the final film and setting up the personal stakes that carried into No Time to Die.

No Time to Die (2021)

After repeated pandemic delays, No Time to Die opened in October 2021. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and co-written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the film followed Bond as he confronted a villain armed with weaponized nanobots and ultimately sacrificed himself to protect his family. It grossed $774.2 million worldwide and earned an 83 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, numbers that marked it as a resilient performer during a difficult release window.

Box Office and Critical Reception

No Time to Die opened to strong reviews that highlighted its scale and emotional payoff even while some critics noted its lengthy runtime. The worldwide gross of $774.2 million placed it among the stronger pandemic-era releases, and the 83 percent Tomatometer score reflected broad approval for the way it closed Craig’s story. Those figures helped cement the film’s place as both a commercial success and a satisfying conclusion to a fifteen-year run.

Daniel Craig's Post-Bond Career

Since leaving the role, Craig has gravitated toward director-driven projects that let him stretch beyond the action-hero template. His turns in Knives Out and its sequel Glass Onion showcased a lighter, more playful screen presence, while upcoming films such as Wake Up Dead Man and Queer signal a continued move into prestige and ensemble-driven cinema. The shift has kept him in demand without any obvious return to the franchise in sight.

The End of an Era: Craig's Bond Legacy

Craig’s five-film stretch stands as the only time audiences saw Bond’s story told from beginning to end under one actor. The decision to kill the character in No Time to Die gave the run a structural finality that previous Bonds never reached. That choice, paired with the record length of his tenure, continues to shape how later entries will be measured against his version of the spy.

The Future of James Bond

With Amazon MGM Studios now holding greater control of the franchise, a new film is in development featuring a new actor. Speculation about possible future appearances by Craig surfaces from time to time, yet the narrative closure of No Time to Die has so far kept those conversations hypothetical. The next chapter will test how much of Craig’s grounded, decade-spanning approach carries forward under fresh stewardship.