Daniel Craig Got Asked Who He Wants to See Play James Bond Next. His Answer: ‘I Don’t Care’

Daniel Craig and his “Queer” co-star Drew Starkey tested their knowledge of one another during a game of “How Well Do They Know Each Other?” with Variety’s Tiana DeNicola, and Craig’s blunt response when asked about the next James Bond actor is going viral. Simply put, Craig does not care. The actor played 007 in five Bond movies from 2006 to 2021. His tenure ended with “No Time to Die.”

“If you were to pass the James Bond torch, who would you love to see play him?” Variety asked the two actors, which prompted Craig to laugh and respond: “I don’t care.”

Craig told the BBC in 2022 that he had no regrets about his decision to stop playing James Bond, explaining: “I had an incredibly fortunate 17 years of my life making this. I literally want to spend the next 20 years of my life trying to unhook it all and try and put it into a place because it was incredible. I left it where I wanted it to be. And that I was given the chance to do that with the last movie.”

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The actor was in his late 30s when he was cast as Bond in his first 007 movie, “Casino Royale.” The decision, however, did not receive unanimous praise. Longtime James Bond casting director Debbie McWilliams told Entertainment Weekly back in 2021 that she “felt sorry” for Craig after his casting led to extreme blowback from press who thought Craig didn’t fit the part of Bond.

“It was unbelievably negative, I have to say,” McWilliams said about the reaction to Craig’s casting. “The press response was awful and I felt so sorry for him, but in a funny kind of a way I think it almost spurred him on to do his damndest to prove everybody wrong.”

“The whole way through the film, stuff would come out about [how] he couldn’t walk and talk, he couldn’t run, he couldn’t drive a car properly, so much stuff which was completely and utterly untrue,” she continued. “And he just kept his head down, got on with the job and then the film came out and everybody went, ‘Oh wow, I think we quite like him after all.’”

As for the next James Bond, almost nothing is known about how franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson plan to follow-up Craig’s beloved run. Neither a director nor an actor have been announced for the next 007 tentpole.

Watch Craig and Starkey’s full Variety video interview below.