By Ben Travis | Posted 22 Dec 2019

When Spectre came out in 2015, there were reasons to believe it might be Daniel Craig’s last outing as James Bond – not least due to the actor himself at one point saying he would rather ‘slash his wrists’ than don the 007 tux again, a comment which he not long after retracted. But with 2020 looming, we’re about to see Craig’s Bond return for a fifth and final time in No Time To Die, picking up a few years down the line from that last instalment.

Speaking to Empire for the upcoming world exclusive No Time To Die issue – on newsstands from Friday 27 December – Craig spoke about his decision to return as the MI6 agent after Spectre. “If that had been it, the world would have carried on as normal, and I would have been absolutely fine,” he says. “But somehow it felt like we needed to finish something off. If I’d left it at Spectre, something at the back of my head would have been going, ‘I wish I’d done one more.’” While Sam Mendes’ second Bond film linked together the likes of Quantum, Spectre, Mr. White and other elements of the Craig era, the actor had his own thoughts about where the continuing story might end up. “I always had a kind of secret idea about the whole lot in my head, and where I wanted to take it. And Spectre wasn’t that,” he explains. “But this feels like it is.”

Read more about No Time To Die in Empire’s world exclusive new issue – including new interviews with Craig, director Cary Joji Fukunaga, Bond boss Barbara Broccoli, and series newcomers Lashana Lynch and Rami Malek. Plus we have exclusive images, and on-set access to Bond’s long-awaited comeback. Pick up a copy on newsstands from Friday 27 December.