No Time to Die Star Thought James Bond's Ending Would Be Changed Before Release

James Bond actor Daniel Craig made it clear before No Time to Die that it would be his final outing as 007, resulting in the film giving the character a seemingly permanent send-off, with star Naomie Harris so shocked by the finality of that ending that she thought the movie would alter its finale to be less definitive. Given that some productions have gone to great lengths to keep a film's secrets, including withholding key pages or even distributing fake scripts, she also noted how upset she would have been if she had been fooled by the filmmakers with a phony story.

"I would have been so outraged if they didn't give me the proper ending, oh, my gosh ... I couldn't believe it," Harris recalled to CinemaBlend. "I actually thought they were going to change it. I thought, 'Okay, so they've written this ending, but that's not real. They can't -- they can't do that.' Because that doesn't happen to Bond ever, right? I mean, I've never seen that happen to Bond -- ever."

A number of actors have played James Bond over the years, with the enlistment of a new performer often going unaddressed within the plot, allowing the character to embark on dozens of adventures over the decades. With No Time to Die, filmmaker Cary Fukunaga wanted to send Craig's take on the character out on a high note that would not only honor the legacy of the character, but allow the future of the franchise to find a new way to explore the concept of the talented spy. This meant having Bond sacrifice himself in order to stop a world-ending threat.

"I wasn't trying to be obtuse with it," Fukunaga recently detailed to Empire Magazine of the character's demise. "I wanted to be clear with it. But I wanted it to be tasteful. We didn't want that shot in Terminator 2 where you see Sarah Connor turning into bones. But we wanted to show that he wasn't going to jump down a sewer at the last second. So that wider shot of the island being pummelled was a mixture of macro and micro. The full effect is, 'Yes, he's gone, but he succeeded in making sure none of that weapons would go on into the future.'" 

No Time to Die is out now on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD. Stay tuned for details on the future of the James Bond franchise.

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