It’s been announced this week that James Bond will – as expected – return, in his 25th official big screen adventure. The new 007 film, which doesn’t as of yet have a title, has been earmarked for release in November 2019. It’s expected that the UK release for the film will be in October 2019, although that hasn’t been confirmed as of yet.
So what do we know about the next James Bond film?
Daniel Craig will most likely return
No casting came with the official announcement for the new James Bond film, but the wise money now appears to be on Daniel Craig returning to play 007 for a fifth and most likely final time. Craig’s weariness was a notable part of the press tour for 2015’s Spectre, where he exclaimed that he was unlikely to return as Bond. Several candidates – led by Tom Hiddleston – were mooted as replacements. The bookies might just have got that one wrong, though. Perhaps they should have given Fantasy slots a go instead! Anyway, producer Barbara Broccoli in particular was said to be keen on getting one more film out of Craig. It looks like she’s got her wish.
We know who the writers are
Since they jumped aboard the James Bond franchise with 1999’s The World Is Not Enough, screenwriters Robert Wade and Neal Purvis have been constants in the James Bond franchise. It looked like they were leaving after Skyfall, but they were lured back to help put together the screenplay for Spectre. It’s now been confirmed too that they’re in place for James Bond 25. Where that leaves earlier work on the script, that had been undertaken by John Logan, remains to be seen.
There’s a new director
Sam Mendes, who steered Skyfall and Spectre, has long-since announced that he was done with James Bond films. That’s left a vacancy behind the camera for a new director. Christopher Nolan had been linked, but he’s admitted he’s more likely to get involved when some sort of reset is needed. Instead, the running favourite for the job is said to be Yann Demange, who directed the excellent ’71. Other names in the running are said to include David Mackenzie and Denis Villeneuve.
Returnees
Whilst other parts of the series are sorted out, there are some returnees we can look forward to seeing again. Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris, for instance, are all likely to reprise their Bond movie roles for the next adventure. We wait and see if Christoph Waltz might return too, with a new dastardly plan!
James Bond 25 is set for release in November 2019.