No Time to Die Delayed Again: Daniel Craig's Last James Bond Film Pushed to 2021

Fans will have to wait a while longer for James Bond's next adventure as it appears that No Time [...]

Fans will have to wait a while longer for James Bond's next adventure as it appears that No Time to Die will reportedly move out of 2020 and will instead release on April 2, 2021, according to a new report from Bloomberg. Daniel Craig's final appearance as Agent 007 was set to premiere in theaters on November 11th, but after many other blockbusters delayed from the fall season and exited 2020 altogether, coupled with the underwhelming domestic haul for Christopher Nolan's Tenet, the second delay for No Time to Die seemed inevitable. No Time to Die was originally supposed to release in April earlier this year, just a month after the world was shut down due to the threat of COVID-19.

The coronavirus pandemic caused the initial pushback to November for No Time to Die, but now it looks like distributors United Artists and Universal Pictures don't want to deal with underwhelming box office numbers. Many health experts are expecting a surge in COVID-19 cases as we head into the winter months, likely prompting producers and execs to move the Bond film to Easter weekend.

"MGM, Universal and Bond producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, today announced the release of No Time To Die, the 25th film in the James Bond series, will be delayed until 2 April in order to be seen by a worldwide theatrical audience. We understand the delay will be disappointing to our fans but we now look forward to sharing No Time To Die next year," production studio MGM said in a statement.

Despite the delays for the theatrical release, No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga all but confirmed the movie was completely finished before the original release in April earlier this year.

"Some people have asked me this," Fukunaga wrote on Instagram after a fan asked about the delay affording them extra time for polish, "and although more time would have been lovely, we had to put our pencils down when we finished our post production window, which was thankfully before COVID shut everything else down."

With the delay of this James Bond film, the only major blockbusters on the calendar for 2020 release dates are Warner Bros. movies Wonder Woman 1984 and Dune. Given the many changes to the calendar, fans shouldn't expect to see those films meet those release dates either.

No Time to Die is now expected to premiere on April 2, 2021.

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