Daniel Craig's Goldeneye. Not only was Casino Royale a revitalizing hit for the 007 franchise, it also thoroughly quelled the early skepticism of Craig's casting as Bond with audiences around the world amazed by his performance in the role.
Craig's Bond tenure unfolded from 2006 to 2021, concluding with his final Bond movie, No Time To Die. Preparations have since begun to continue into the new phase of the James Bond franchise with James Bond 26 (as yet lacking a proper title). While the search for Craig's successor is underway, the pre-production for the next 007 era will be unusually challenging. That is due to numerous factors within the Daniel Craig Bond films.
While each James Bond actor and his particular set of Bond movies have their own distinct feel and attributes, the defining features of Daniel Craig's Bond movies extend beyond the characteristics of the actor's performance. Craig's Bond also elevated aspects of the 007 franchise to new heights, while outright re-inventing other parts of them that put James Bond 26 in a position of having to weigh its options and chart its course more strategically than the average James Bond restart. Here are the key ways in which Daniel Craig's James Bond films create major challenges for James Bond 26.
Daniel Craig Himself Is A High 007 Bar To Meet
Any new iteration of 007 will have its first big challenge in casting a new James Bond, but Daniel Craig will be a particularly tough act to follow. The complete run of Daniel Craig's James Bond re-shaped the character in numerous significant ways and made an undeniable impact on his perception in the public zeitgeist. During Craig's 15-year-long stretch as James Bond, he also built a remarkable level of popularity as 007 with the stamp he put on the character.
While Craig's Bond retained the endearing charm of the character's persona that past 007s have embodied, his version was arguably the most physical iteration of the character. Craig's take on Bond was extremely prone to dishing out punches and engaging in harrowing stunts that would be perfectly at home in Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible franchise. On his own, Craig makes the preparation for Bond 26 and the search for his successor a tall order, while the very action-oriented nature of his Bond films leads into its next hurdle.
The Action Scenes Of Craig's Bond Movies Are Incredible
With every phase of the James Bond franchise and the different actors to portray him, 007's big-screen adventures are full of great action sequences. However, with the emphasis Craig's Bond movies placed on him as a more rugged, grizzled spy, his Bond movies delivered on the 007 action to an extreme degree. The very opening of Casino Royale itself of Bond pursuing a bomb maker in a parkour chase remains a breathtaking action sequence, setting the tone right from the very beginning of what his Bond films were going to be.
Craig's Bond maintained a consistent standard of action throughout his run that cemented into the public consciousness the image of Bond as equal parts spy, fighter, and borderline Olympic athlete. Though the action of the Bond franchise has been a staple of it since the beginning, the real test for James Bond 26 to establish its own 007 is in rising to the standards of the action sequences set in Craig's films. Compounding that challenge is the 007 franchise's efforts for each Bond actor to have the foundation to make the character his own, simply emulating Craig's Bond directly could risk going in the wrong direction. Even with that challenge, there still lies one more equally daunting one.
Craig's Bond Movies Told A Complete Story For His 007
The Bond franchise has long taken a very casual approach to linking each movie, or for that matter linking each take on Bond, with each movie essentially existing as one-offs - even within the specific eras of each Bond actor. Daniel Craig's bleaker James Bond films changed this in a big way by comprising a legitimate 007 series unto themselves with their own internal continuity and arc for the character. No Time To Die especially cemented this by doing the once-unthinkable and having Craig's Bond die in the film's climax.
What's more, past Bond recastings and restarts have previously tended to occur either due to actors aging out of the role, contract disagreements, or general franchise downturns. Craig's Bond not only dealt with none of that but concluded his run in a literal blaze of glory that brought his story to a definitive end. All of this lends to the argument that Bond 26 should revert to the old 007 approach of each Bond movie being effectively a standalone story, especially with how popularity Craig's overall tenure was. James Bond 26 being nothing like Craig's Bond would be a wise strategy, but the Bond franchise might also face the temptation to follow in the footsteps of Craig's Bond in having a tightly defined arc. Either option (or a third hybrid option) will likely be greatly influenced by the fact of Craig's Bond having unusually (for 007) specified story beats, another example of the challenges Bond 26 faces in following up on Craig's time in the James Bond franchise.
However the makers of James Bond 26 choose to proceed in casting the new 007 and following on such an acclaimed Bond run as Daniel Craig's, meeting those challenges will be a wholly new hurdle for the next Bond to meet. Whether James Bond 26's 007 is an unknown actor or a big star on the level of the many fancastings he's received, Daniel Craig's Bond arc leaves the franchise with a high summit to climb. Of course, as Craig proving his early doubters wrong shows, that is also far from an impossible task to pull off. In some ways, Daniel Craig's portrayal of James Bond might even have helped the making of James Bond 26 by leaving it with the definition of a good problem to have.
