Seasons may change, political regimes may rise and fall, and viruses might mutate, but one thing in this world of ours will always stay stable, apparently: The new James Bond movie, No Time To Die, is never coming out.
At least, not any time soon: The official James Bond Twitter account posted a new (old) poster for the Daniel-Craig-starring excursion today, announcing that it’s now coming out on October 8, 2021, i.e., six months after its previous release date of April 2, 2021, which came after it was delayed from November 2020, which itself came…and honestly, we could keep going, but this paragraph would turn into one of those “So-and-so begat whosits who begat Jubbins” bits of the Bible, except with a James Bond movie getting kicked across the schedule over and over again instead.
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, No Time To Die has been finished, essentially, since late 2019. It picked up its first delay in early 2020, back before the pandemic had even set in, on account of Danny Boyle bailing on the project and necessitating extended filming to let Fukunaga step in. Then COVID happened, and it’s been a long series of scheduling mishaps ever since, as hype cycles have come and went, Billie Eilish theme songs have Eilished, and we’ve all kind of patiently waited for Craig’s last run at the character to play out.
The new release date confirms what we’ve suspected for several months now: MGM’s determined to give this thing an actual theatrical release, come hell-or-high-water-or-endless-global-pandemic. There were rumors that the studio might have tried to shop the film out for a huge chunk of its budget to Netflix, but the studio is holding fast now to the line that James Bond films debut in theaters, damn it, eschewing the kinds of hybrid releases that Warner Bros. has been indulging in of late.
No Time To Die stars Craig, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Léa Seydoux, and Ben Whishaw. Oh, were we ever so young?