Daniel Craig hosted Saturday Night Live in an odd position, as the movie he was there to promote was pushed to this fall over concerns about the spread of coronavirus. Craig’s appearance on the sketch comedy show was not delayed, however, letting him take the stage and joke about the delay to his benefit.
In his opening monologue Craig’s first joke was about his upcoming Bond movie, which was actually moved to a November release due to coronavirus fears. Noting that Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge is involved with the film, Craig noted that the dialogue will change in the upcoming film.
“It’s not that different,” he said. “But every so often I will turn to the camera and say ‘The name’s Bond. James Bond. Is it bad that I fancy the pope?”
After that, though, Craig shared a “sneak preview” of a scene from No Time To Die in which he gets extremely hot at the craps table, to the surprise of everyone in the casino, including Craig himself.
It’s actually quite funny to see the notably cool Craig lose said cool as he continues to roll sevens and eights as the stereotypical casino hanger-ons encircle the table. Keenan Thompson plays a member of a bachelor party, while Chloe Fineman is an attractive casino regular and Kate McKinnon is an elderly lady all about the action.
It’s all surprisingly good fun given the reason for the delay of the Bond release, and the first commercial break after the monologue was, predictably, the trailer for the real Bond movie that will now hit theaters months in the future. But it was fun to imagine a world where the real James Bond was transfixed by a craps table like the rest of us would be, especially in the face of an unnatural hot streak.
