Director<\/a> Danny Boyle<\/a> has revealed the one regret he has after quitting the James Bond<\/a> franchise in 2018. <\/p>\n The 28 Years Later creator<\/a> and his collaborator, the writer John Hodge, were due to complete work on Daniel Craig<\/a>\u2019s final stint as the British spy in the 25th film in the series based on Ian Fleming\u2019s novels. However, the pair dropped out of production mid-way through the movie, citing \u201ccreative differences\u201d<\/a>. <\/p>\n As speculation surrounding Craig\u2019s replacement continues to ramp up<\/a>, Boyle was asked if it could signal his return to the franchise. <\/p>\n \u201cThat ship has sailed,\u201d he told Business Insider. \u201cThe thing I regret about that is the script was really good. John Hodge is a wonderful writer.\u201d<\/p>\n Hodge is one of Boyle\u2019s closest collaborators. The pair worked together on Trainspotting (1996), The Beach (2000) and Shallow Grave (1994).<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think they appreciated how good that script was, and because they didn\u2019t, we moved on, and that\u2019s the way it should be,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n Eventually Cary Joji Fukunaga (Beasts of No Nation; Maniac) took over as director, with 2021\u2019s No Time to Die serving as Craig\u2019s swansong as Bond. <\/p>\n In an interview with Esquire in 2022, Boyle shed light on what the unseen script had envisaged for the film<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWeirdly \u2013 it would have been very topical now \u2013 it was all set in Russia, which is of course where Bond came from, out of the Cold War,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Boyle dropped out of the 25th James Bond film over \u2018creative differences\u2019 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n \u201cIt was set in present-day Russia and went back to his origins, and they just lost, what\u2019s the word… they just lost confidence in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Boyle added that, despite the producers thinking they want something original, they \u201cdon\u2019t really want\u201d anything that is too untraditional. <\/p>\n Boyle previously told The Independent of the Bond saga<\/a>: \u201cWe just fell out about the way the script was going. I think that obviously, being as they are, they want it their way and normally a director would accept that and go along with it.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I have this relationship with my writer [John Hodge] that\u2019s quite intense, passionate and loyal and I would not change him \u2013 precisely because I really liked what he was doing. Our idea was good, but they didn\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n Casting rumours have circulated ever since Craig<\/a> \u2013 the longest-running actor to ever play the super spy \u2013 announced he would be retiring <\/a>from the franchise.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n (Eon Productions)<\/p>\n A number of actors have been reportedly in the running to replace him in the iconic role<\/a>, including Bridget Jones star Leo Woodall,<\/a> Luther actor Idris Elba, Happy Valley\u2019s James Norton,<\/a>Venom star Tom Hardy, and rumoured favourite, Aaron Taylor-Johnson<\/a>. <\/p>\n In February, it was announced that Amazon MGM had taken full creative control of the Bond franchise<\/a> after striking a deal with long-time producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.<\/p>\n The duo remain co-owners of the franchise, but the business decision leaves creative control of future James Bond productions in the hands of American-owned Amazon<\/a>, prompting concern from fans over potential changes to the beloved franchise.<\/p>\n In March, Pierce Brosnan<\/a> weighed in on the speculation that the role could go to a non-British actor<\/a>. Brosnan, who played 007 in four films between 1995 and 2002, insisted that it was a \u201cgiven\u201d that the next actor to play Bond should be British.<\/p>\n That said, Bond has previously been played by two non-British actors, including Brosnan, who is Irish. The other is George Lazenby, who is Australian. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-207117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114731499190132923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Boyle](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2220799450.jpg\")
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