With No Time To Die off to a strong start at the box office, actor Daniel Craig is now reflecting on how the beloved MI6 agent has transformed in recent years, particularly how the martini-swilling super spy has toned down the rampant womanizing that was ever-present in the earliest installments of the film series.
While No Time To Die will be Craig’s swan song to the James Bond character, the over-arching romantic habits of Bond during the Craig-era has seen the spy be noticeably more faithful to his romantic interests, Yahoo Entertainment points out. In other words, there’s more actual love happening in these films than shallow one-night stands as in the entries of old.
Bond’s commitment to romantic partners started with his deep affection for Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, then continued with his relationship with his girlfriend Madeleine Swann in No time To Die. Indeed, the latest film represents the least promiscuous representation in the character’s history.
“Listen, he’s not done too badly…I hope we’ve sort of changed things. A lot of things that were acceptable in 1962 when they made [the first Bond movie Dr. No] are just not part of the world anymore. And I feel like to have someone that reflects modern life is really important… Bond movies have always sort of mirrored the world around [them].”
Producer Barbara Broccoli further explained that the character has always struggled with relationships so it was an area the creators to explore.
“Relationships have always been a challenge for him…And that’s been an area that we’ve really loved exploring, both in the romantic side of his life, but also in his relationships with the people at MI6 that he sort of developed as a family as well. So we really wanted to push the character in those directions as much as possible. And Daniel was the man to do it.”
You can catch No Time To Die in theaters right now.