Daniel Craig’s supposed last appearance as James Bond in 2021’s No Time To Die had its share of production hiccups. The film was originally set to be directed by Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting director Danny Boyle before Boyle left the production. Cary Joji Fukunaga eventually became the blockbuster movie’s director, but not before the script was re-tooled and a lot of other changes and cuts were made. One of those cuts was apparently Ed Sheeran (in favor of Billie Eilish), as the “Shape Of You” singer explained this week on The Peter Crouch Podcast.
“I was within a f*cking gnat’s pube of doing one [a James Bond series theme song], and they changed directors, and then they just changed scripts and that was it…we’d done all the meetings, I started writing it,” Sheeran said, adding that, “I’m not gonna pretend it didn’t hurt not doing it. But if they came back I’d be like, ‘yeah, yeah, of course, yeah!’”
One can understand why Sheeran isn’t over this. With him cleared out, Eilish became the new artist behind the No Time To Die theme song along with production from her brother Finneas. And not only that, Eilish went on to win an Oscar, Golden Globe, and a Grammy Award for hers and Finneas’ “No Time To Die.” So don’t fault Sheeran if his ego is a bit bruised. On the bright side, new Bond films have been promised and if he isn’t the choice for future songs, he can always blow off some steam with a martini at his in-home crypt (Shaken, not stirred. of course.)
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. .
