No Time to Die director says an early idea for the movie involved it taking place inside James Bond’s head

Daniel Craig in No Time to Die
(Image credit: Universal)

Most of the recent James Bond movies have tried to uncover what makes 007 tick. However, a concept floated around by No Time to Die director Cary Fukunaga may have taken the idea of what goes on in Bond's head a little too literally. It's a plot twist that would have made the spacefaring Moonraker look mundane by comparison.

“I had an idea that this movie could all be taking place inside the villain’s lair from the last film,” Fukunaga told artist Miranda July in a piece for Interview Magazine.

Spectre, the movie Fukunaga is referring to, saw Bond captured by his half-brother Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), who intended to insert a needle into his brain to render him powerless. As villain schemes go, it was blunt and (pun unfortunately intended) to the point – and would have been a potential jumping-on point for No Time to Die.

“I was like, ‘What if everything up until the end of act two is all inside his head?’” Fukunaga said, though it’s unclear if he was being serious serious or – more than likely given the tone of the interview and the fact July and Fukunaga are friends – a spitball of an idea that was pretty quickly canned.

Still, it indicates that the director, perhaps best known for helming the entirety of the first season of True Detective, is not willing to play it safe for what will be Daniel Craig’s fifth and final appearance as the iconic secret agent.

In the same interview, Fukunaga also mentioned that Bond producer Barbara Broccoli previously intended on making a spin-off to the series, based on Halle Berry’s character in Die Another Day. 

"The inclusion of a new female 00 agent had come from Barbara," he said, referring to Lashana Lynch, who will play a new 00 in No Time to Die. "I only found out through working with her that she had wanted to do a spin-off of Jinx, which is Halle Berry’s character in Die Another Day. The female characters in the film, who they are and what they stand for, was definitely something Barbara had already had in mind."

No Time to Die will hit theatres on November 12 in the UK and November 25 in the US.

Bradley Russell

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.