Dame Judi Dench, who played M in eight James Bond films over two decades, has stated that Daniel Craig was instrumental in the decision to kill off her character in the 2012 film Skyfall. Dench shared this revelation in an excerpt from her new memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run For It?, published by Variety.
According to Dench, she was informed of M's impending death by the film's director, Sam Mendes, along with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, during a meeting at the Wolseley restaurant. While she humorously attributed the decision to her own request to be moved "from behind my desk," Dench directly named Craig as the impetus for her character's demise. "Apparently, it was Daniel’s idea to have me killed," she stated, adding with a laugh that she first had to endure being sacked by Ralph Fiennes' character. M did make a posthumous appearance in Spectre.
Dench also recalled Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) as the most challenging Bond film to produce, citing a significant amount of last-minute script rewrites that caused instability and made learning lines difficult under tight deadlines. She described arriving home late only to receive numerous new pages to memorize before an early morning pickup.
In related news, the search for the next actor to portray James Bond is reportedly narrowing, with Callum Turner, Jack Lowden, and Josh O’Connor considered frontrunners.