I give credit to three-time Bond novelist Anthony Horowitz for saying what so many Bond fans have quietly thought since No Time To Die debuted: killing James Bond was a creative misfire. As one of the few people truly embedded in the Bond literary universe, Horowitz’s criticism is the most influential to point out the obvious.

Whether Daniel Craig pushed for a definitive ending or the producers saw it as an artistic end, the decision painted the franchise into a corner, and ending his story so literally felt less like bold storytelling and more like a surrender.  As Horowitz rightly noted, you can’t simply have Bond “wake up in the shower and say it was all a dream.”  The next movie, Bond 26, must take a bolder approach: a clean reboot with no references, callbacks, or winks to Craig’s continuity.

A new Bond should feel like a recalibration that honors the character’s timelessness without being shackled by the emotional wreckage of No Time To Die.  The franchise doesn’t need to explain its way out of Craig’s ending; it just needs to move on.