Bond 25 Production Suspended After Daniel Craig Suffers Injury

Daniel Craig in Skyfall

Production on the as-yet-untitled James Bond 25 has reached a standstill as lead actor Daniel Craig apparently has injured himself badly on set and needs time to recover.

Daniel Craig and the rest of the cast and crew for Bond 25 were in Jamaica filming scenes for the upcoming 007 thriller, due to reach theaters in 2020. According to The Sun, Craig slipped while running in his signature Bond suit, and he fell awkwardly, causing himself an enormous amount of pain. It’s believed that Craig injured his ankle while running, and the actor was flown to the States for X-rays to determine the extent of the damage.

According to the report, Daniel Craig was filming one of his last scenes in Jamaica, with filming set to resume in London’s Pinewood Studios afterward. For the time being, that schedule has been put on hold as the crew decides what to do next. The Sun notes that production bosses hope that Craig’s injury doesn’t cause a long delay.

Daniel Craig has been recognized as the more physical James Bond from the moment he joined the franchise in 2006’s Casino Royale, and he has endured his fair share of bumps, bruises and bodily harms as a result of playing 007. As is documented in The Sun, Craig lost two teeth after absorbing a blow to the face while filming his first-ever stunt scene as 007.

Since then, Craig also has suffered a muscle tear while filming Quantum of Solace (during which he also sliced off the tip of a finger), and sustained a serious knee injury while filming a fight scene for Spectre, which caused production to shut down for weeks.

Who is on set telling Daniel Craig to slow it down a tad? Maybe the studio needs to hire a coach who encourages Craig to give the stunt guy more work? Granted, without Craig in the role, we wouldn’t get memorable action set pieces like this:

But does Daniel Craig still feel like this physical pain is worth it? The 51-year-old actor hemmed and hawed about returning to 007 in the press, leading to rampant speculation that he’d be replaced by an alternate Bond. Even now though it hasn’t been officially stated by anyone, many seem to believe that Bond 25 will be Craig’s final turn in the tuxedo, and on-set injuries probably help convince him to hang it up.

Cary Fukunaga directs Bond 25, with a story we know very little about. The cast was in Jamaica to announce the start of production, knowing that the location has a lot of personal and professional connections to author Ian Fleming and the Bond movie series, as a whole.

We’ll see how Daniel Craig fell when Bond 25 opens in theaters on April 8, 2020.

Sean O'Connell
Managing Editor

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.