Daniel Craig is 'poised to return' as James Bond

Actor could be offered as much as £120 million to play role for the fifth time

Daniel Craig is reportedly convinced to make his fifth appearance as James Bond following talks with franchise producer Barbara Broccoli, reported Daily Mail.

According to reports, Craig was asked to star in the film after producers decided that Tom Hiddleston was “too smug and not tough enough” for the role.

“They have a script-screenwriting duo Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who have penned several Bond movies, are now writing the next script and it’ll go into production as soon as Daniel is ready to commit,” said a source. “Plus, Barbara Broccoli doesn’t like Tom Hiddleston, he’s a bit too smug and not tough enough to play James Bond.”



Craig’s potential replacement Hiddleston, once a frontrunner for the coveted role, has effectively been ruled out by Broccoli following a series of encouraging talks with Craig – who she recently produced in a contemporary, off-Broadway revival of Shakespeare’s Othello. “Daniel was very pleased with how Othello went and the great reviews,” the insider added.

Sources claim Hiddleston's high profile romance with American pop star Taylor Swift, coupled with a bizarre acceptance speech at the 74th annual Golden Globes – during which he relayed an awkwardly expressed anecdote about aid workers in impoverished south Sudan warmly greeting him after watching his TV drama The Night Manager, also failed to impress Broccoli.

Craig enjoyed enormous success in the years following his first appearance as Bond in the 2005 hit Casino Royale. The actor has played 007 on three further occasions, but he appeared adamant that the Sam Mendes directed Spectre, in which all four of Craig's Bond films are neatly tied together, would be his last during an interview with Time Out. “I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists,” he told the magazine in 2015. “We’re done. All I want to do is move on.”

He added that if he did another movie, “it would only be for the money”. But in 2016, he described Bond as the best job in the world sparking hopes that Craig would return for a fifth film.



Craig was paid $10.7 million for the 2012 smash Skyfall, making him the highest-paid Bond actor ever. The film was the first Bond movie to break the one billion dollar mark. Its enormous success led to Craig reportedly brokering a deal to be paid £31 million for his next two 007 films, including Spectre, the 24th film in the franchise.

Craig is currently the second-longest serving Bond in history having officially starred as the spy for over 11 years. Sir Roger Moore is the longest serving 007 spending 12 years in the role and starring in seven films, including The Man with the Golden Gun, Live and Let Die and A View To A Kill.

Reports have claimed that Craig could be offered as much as £120 million to play Bond for a fifth time.

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