'No Time to Die' Director Cary Fukunaga Only Became A Fan Of Bond After Watching ‘Casino Royale’

When it was announced that Cary Fukunaga would be taking over as director of “No Time to Die,” after the departure of Danny Boyle, many were shocked. Historically, ‘Bond’ directors have been British, and Fukunaga is definitely not. Not only that, but his previous works didn’t really make it seem like he’d be the most obvious choice to usher in the 25th film in the spy franchise. Regardless, Fukunaga was hired, and so far, “No Time to Die” looks great.

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But as seen in a new Interview Magazine discussion with fellow filmmaker Miranda July, it’s obvious that Fukunaga doesn’t think of himself as the obvious choice to helm a James Bond film, either. You see, before he was signed on to direct “No Time to Die,” the filmmaker was far from the biggest 007 fan around. That is, unless you count playing the N64 video game, “GoldenEye,” as making you a huge Bond fan.

When July asked him if he was a big fan of the ‘Bond’ franchise before stepping up to direct the film, Fukunaga explained his credentials.

“Yeah,” he said. “I don’t think I’d seen every single ‘James Bond’ film, but I was pretty well-versed on it. I don’t think I became a fan of the franchise until ‘Casino Royale.’ Prior to that, my only in-depth James Bond experience was at my cousin’s house playing ‘GoldenEye.’”

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The filmmaker also fully explained Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s inclusion into the writing process. As many already know, the “Fleabag” creator was brought on to polish the script before production and there are many reports that claim she was only hired to help flesh out the female characters and add “feminism” to the script. Fukunaga refutes that and explains what she really did.

“Well, first of all, Barbara Broccoli, one of the main producers, is either the first or second most successful female producer,” Fukunaga said. “Feminism is something she has slowly been turning up the dial on for decades. The inclusion of a new female 00 agent had come from Barbara. 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. And Phoebe—who is a brilliant writer regardless of her gender, but is writing really fun and more fully fleshed-out female characters than anyone else right now—brought a lot of ideas about how to make the characters we already had that much more interesting.”

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Maybe this explanation will finally put to bed all the theories that Waller-Bridge is going to ruin the 007 franchise by making it some sort of “SJW” film. Judging by what Fukunaga says, it would appear that all of the issues that a certain segment of fans are concerned about were put in place well before even Fukunaga was aboard.

“No Time to Die” is set to arrive in theaters on November 25.