Real-life 007 Daniel Craig receives same royal honor as fictional 007 James Bond

Daniel Craig, you will always be James Bond. Even though the actor decided to hang up his license to kill after No Time To Die for a license to be gay and solve crimes in Rian Johnson’s upcoming Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, it will always be hard not to immediately picture that suave accent whenever the iconic secret agent is mentioned. (Good luck to whoever has to fill those perfectly shined shoes.)

The British crown itself is certainly not helping Craig move on from these associations. On Tuesday, the Royal Family’s official Twitter account shared a photo of Princess Anne bestowing The Order of St Michael and St George upon the actor—the very same honor awarded to his character in the original Ian Fleming novels.

Craig’s honor is “in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film and theatre.” While this particular order is most commonly awarded to senior diplomats and other political figures, the monarchy’s official criteria state that it is generally reserved for “men and women of high office, or who render extraordinary or important non-military service in a foreign country.” If that wild Foghorn Leghorn accent in Knives Out doesn’t qualify as extraordinary or important, then we don’t know what does!

This is also not the first time Craig has achieved the same level of exemplary Britishness as his fictional counterpart. In September 2021, the actor was also named an honorary commander in the U.K. Royal Navy, per Entertainment Weekly—a post also shared by the spy.

The real question now is whether this highly decorated “actor” has been wrapping us all into his undercover con for years. The next time a bunch of money goes missing in Hollywood, we can’t say we’d be all that surprised to see the real-life 007 show up on the scene, medal in hand, to deliver his iconic line: I’m Craig. Daniel Craig.