Director Sam Mendes seemingly agrees that Spectre was a bit of a letdown

Like many Bonds before him, the Daniel Craig years had ups and downs, peaks and valleys, and Martinis shaken and stirred. Much like Star Trek, every other Bond seems to be a bit of a letdown; for every Casino Royale, there is a Quantum Of Solace. For director Sam Mendes, who directed the series highpoint Skyfall, his Quantum Of Solace was Spectre.

One of several Bond films that Craig declared his last, Spectre had a lot of goodwill going into it. There was a cool poster with skeleton masks and an Oscar-winning actor playing an iconic character, with Christoph Waltz playing Blofeld, the first time the character appeared in a Bond since 1983’s bizarre Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again. And yet, it still can’t help but feel like a comedown in the wake of something as special as Skyfall.

Director Sam Mendes is well aware of this. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he describes the differences in making the two, namely how good it felt to finish Skyfall. “I remember doing [the gun-barrel shot] at the end of the shoot, and I remember feeling relaxed and happy because we’d wrapped the rest of the movie and there was music playing that wasn’t the Bond theme,” Mendes said. “And we were just having a good time and feeling like: ‘Wow, we’ve made a movie here, and we all felt it was a good one.’”

‌On the other hand, Spectre seems like it simply wasn’t ready when the cameras started rolling. Mendes said:

These movies are very difficult to write. Those 10 months of downtime, that’s when the script really turned around, because we had the time to go down blind alleys and try things like the [Bond/Silva team-up]. And that time was not afforded to me when we made Spectre. And you can see the difference in the script. [With Spectre], I felt there was some pressure. Certainly [producers Barbara and Michael Broccoli] exerted some pressure on me and Daniel to make the next one, so that makes a big difference. People saying: ‘We want you to do it,’ and passionately wooing me to do it, was a big thing.

But, as always, James Bond will return, and return he did with No Time To Die, a much better movie than Spectre. With this “every other Bond movie is bad” trend in place, the Broccolis should make Bond 26, throw it out, and then produce and release Bond 27. This is a good idea that deserves a shot.