Coronavirus: James Bond’s “No Time to Die” postponed

Poster of No Time To Die

No Time to Die, an upcoming James Bond movie release date is now delayed for seven months due to fears of the spread of the COVID-19 flu (coronavirus).

The movie which was supposed to premiere in April 2020 will now open in November this year.

No Time to Die was initially scheduled to premiere in the U.S. on April 10. Now, the film will premiere in the United Kingdom on November 12 and open in the United States on November 25—a more than seven-month delay.

According to a statement by the movie’s producers, they had moved the release of No Time To Die from April to November after “careful consideration and thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace”.

MGM, Universal and Bond producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, announced today that after careful consideration and thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace, the release of NO TIME TO DIE will be postponed until November 2020. pic.twitter.com/a9h1RP5OKd

— James Bond (@007) March 4, 2020

No Time to Die, which is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and stars Daniel Craig in what will be his fifth and final outing as 007, had already had its Hong Kong premiere delayed, and subsequent publicity tours in China, South Korea, and Japan were scrapped due to coronavirus fears.

Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions, the studio that historically has been the Bond films’s primary producer, pushed for the delay.

THR also notes that China, Italy, France, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea—all countries that are currently experiencing coronavirus outbreaks—accounted for 38 percent of the global earnings for Spectre, the previous Bond film.

No Time to Die is the first major blockbuster to alter its global rollout due to the virus