Mark Strong appears to confirm Daniel Craig’s James Bond exit: ‘He’s done what he wants with it’

Cat out the bag: Mark Strong appears to confirm that Daniel Craig has stepped down as Bond
Grant Lamos IV/Getty Images
Jennifer Ruby23 February 2016
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Mark Strong seems to have confirmed that friend Daniel Craig has stepped down from his role as James Bond.

The actor has claimed that Craig has ‘done what he wants’ with the part and won’t be returning to the franchise.

In an interview with Shortlist, he said: “Do you know what, I’d have loved to have played the villain in a Bond movie while Daniel was doing it because he’s a pal and that would have been great.

“But I think he’s come to the end of his Bond time and so it’s probably never going to happen, but that would have always been great.”

Spectre Filming

1/4

When asked if he could try and persuade Craig to do one more film, Strong said: “Well, I will try, believe me, I will do my best. But there are powers at work greater than us who make all these decisions.”

He added: “He has been [wonderful] and he’s loved it. But I think he feels like he’s mined it. He’s done what he wants with it. That point has come.”

Craig has stayed tight-lipped about whether or not he will return to play the part one more time, despite joking last year that he’d rather ‘slash his wrists’.

The actor is thought to be under contract for one more film following last year’s Spectre but is rumoured to have already stepped down.

Stars including James Norton, John Boyega, Idris Elba and Tom Hiddleston are rumoured to be in the running to take over the role.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in