Daniel Craig Talks About The Death Of James Bond: 'I Wanted To Kill Him Off'

Daniel Craig opened up with his co-star Javier Bardem, who played Raoul Silva's character in the movie "Skyfall," and noted that he was waiting for Bond's death for a long time, which happened in the latest James Bond movie, "No Time To Die."

"I had this idea, I wanted to kill him off a long time ago - in Casino Royale - for all sorts of reasons. One, purely egotistical," Craig said to Bardem during an interview for Variety on Monday. "I feel like I needed to end what I did on it and that I would only be satisfied if I could walk away and there was nowhere else for that to go."

Craig explained that he wanted someone else to come and reinvent Bond in a completely different way than he did.

"But I knew the only way to make it work was that it had to be based in love. In 'Skyfall,' it’s the story of his love for Judi [Dench], which is complicated and toxic," he said. "And every time we’ve concentrated on love, it’s paid dividends."

The 53-year-old actor explained that Madeleine [played by Léa Seydoux] was not discovered in the previous movie of the franchise and he felt that there was a relationship between them that could be discovered.

"They were flawed human beings, and of course they were madly in love with each other. When we’d done that, I really understood it. I just said, 'I’ve got to enjoy this,' you know? I’ve sometimes not enjoyed it," he explained.

"I’ve sometimes been too hardworking," he added. "I’ve been too serious about the whole thing and too involved with too many things. I tried to make myself involved with the things that mattered. And that was me getting on set and being in the right frame of mind for each scene."

Bardem noted that Craig's work was great and congratulated him on playing Bond.

In "No Time to Die," Bond sacrifices himself for his love Madeleine as he was infected by a lethal virus. Now, it will be interesting to watch if the writers of the franchise are going to reboot the franchise and introduce a new Bond or proceed further with the story.

On the work front, Craig will be next seen in the movies like "Knives Out 2," "The Creed of Violence" and "Knives Out 3." He will also feature in a TV series, titled "Purity."