Daniel Craig Dreamed He’d Play the Invisible Man Before Ever Playing James Bond

Actor Daniel Craig has cemented himself in cinematic history by taking on the iconic role of James Bond beginning with Casino Royale in 2006, though the actor previously thought it would be more likely that he took on a role in which we barely saw his face as the Invisible Man. Interestingly, the actor also pointed out that he thought it would be more likely that he play a character like Superman or Spider-Man, who have been played by fewer actors than have played James Bond, which would seemingly come with more pressure. The Invisible Man has most recently been played by English actor Oliver Jackson-Cohen.

“People are always saying to me, ‘You must have dreamed of playing James Bond when you were a kid,’” Craig shared with Saga magazine, per Metro. “The answer is no. I never did. I dreamed of being all sorts of other things – Superman, Spider-Man, the Invisible Man, even a good old-fashioned cowboy. But Bond so much, which seems ironic now.”

As compared to other Universal Monsters, the Invisible Man has earned far fewer big-screen adaptations. Back in 2017, Universal Pictures announced that it would be moving forward with a “Dark Universe” of monster movie reboots, with Johnny Depp being attached at the time to play the Invisible Man. When that franchise’s first entry, The Mummy, was a critical and financial disappointment, the franchise ended up stagnating indefinitely.

Despite being the titular character, the new reboot’s success is largely due to shifting focus away from the character who can avoid detection, with Jackson-Cohen previously revealing that, while we might not have seen him in the film, he was a key component to bringing the film to life.

“I was very much involved. We’re trying to keep how we did it … we’re trying to keep as much of that a secret as possible so the audiences don’t spend their time thinking about how we did it,” Jackson-Cohen revealed to ComicBook.com of the film’s shooting process. “It was such an amazing experience. It’s kind of an actor’s dream, that you’re in a movie, you’re the title character, and everyone talks about you the whole time and you don’t have to do much. And then they pay you, it’s crazy. So I feel very lucky.”

Craig can be seen in his final James Bond film, No Time to Die, later this year. The Invisible Man is currently available On Demand.

Would you have liked to have seen Craig’s take on the Invisible Man? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!