Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga are Broadway's next Macbeths

Straight from his longtime role as the iconic James Bond, Daniel Craig will play another well-studied character, Macbeth. Starring in Tony winner Sam Gold’s forthcoming 15-week Broadway production of the Shakespeare play, Ruth Negga (Loving) will appear opposite Craig as Lady Macbeth.

“Daniel is not only a great film actor but a magnificent theatre actor as well,” says Macbeth producer Barbara Broccoli, who also produces the James Bond film franchise. “I am thrilled that he will be supporting the return of Broadway playing this iconic role with the exquisitely talented Ruth Negga making her Broadway debut and under the expert direction of Sam Gold.”

Macbeth’s stage life, of course, traces back to its inception. However, the first Broadway production of the Bard’s play goes all the way back to 1768. The most recent Broadway production starred Ethan Hawke and Anne-Marie Duff as the ill-advised couple in 2013. Months prior, Alan Cumming performed a one-man performance of the play on the big stage.

As the tale of Macbeth returns to the stage, it also returns to the silver screen this year with the upcoming film adaptation by the singular Coen brother—Joel Coen—starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. Across the pond, James McArdle (Mare Of Easttown) and Saoirse Ronan will play the doomed couple in a Yaël Farber-helmed production at the Almeida Theatre in London.

Craig previously worked with Gold on an off-Broadway production of Shakespeare Othello as Iago. He made his Broadway debut opposite Hugh Jackman in a 2009 production of Keith Huff’s A Steady Rain. Shortly before the pandemic shut down stages across the globe, Negga starred in Hamlet as the title Danish royal at St. Ann’s Warehouse. The Oscar nominee makes her Broadway debut with Macbeth.

Other cast announcements are forthcoming. Macbeth will begin previews March 29, 2022 at the Lyceum Theatre ahead of an April 28 opening.