Last week, James Bond producers announced that Daniel Craig’s No Time To Die would be delayed seven months until November. The drastic move was seen by commentators to be solely a financial one considering that coronavirus is preventing people from going to the cinema around the world. This is especially the case with China, the second-largest box office audience after the US, where authorities have closed down over 70,000 movie theatres to help contain the illness.
Nevertheless, a popular new fan theory reckons the real reason for the move is because No Time To Die’s secretive plot could have something to do with a virus outbreak.
Reddit user OrwinBeane, whose argument has received over 2000 up-votes wrote: “No Time To Die has been given a November release date due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“But I think this wasn’t due to fears of the virus spreading in cinemas, but instead the film’s plot is about Bond attempting to prevent a chemical weapon from being released.
“If they released the film now people would say it’s in poor taste due to the coronavirus.”
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Sharing their supposed evidence, they argued: “In the trailer, Bond says ‘History doesn’t look kindly to men who play God’ to the main villain, Safin.
“In the Bible, God was known for sending floods and epidemics to earth so Bond could have been referring to the villain’s plan to release a virus.
“Safin also says ‘Your skills die with your body. Mine will be here long after I’m gone’.
“Meaning he is attempting to leave a mark on the planet. A virus could do this.”
They added: “Though we don’t have any specifics about what was ill-received by test audiences, we are being told they are scheduling two pieces of reshoots to last 12 to 14 days.
“And that they are using the outbreak as cover to avoid bad publicity.
“With a very public and problematic history of the film, it would be very easy to believe that an extensive delay would be more than likely due to issues with the film itself than the current global health threat.
“Midnight’s Edge would not insinuate that MGM, United Artists, Annapurna, and Universal would do something as nefarious as to use a global outbreak to cover themselves.”
Express.co.uk has contacted EON Productions for comment.
No Time To Die’s synopsis reads: “Five years after the capture of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, James Bond has left active service.
“He is approached by Felix Leiter, his friend and a CIA officer, who enlists his help in the search for Valdo Obruchev, a missing scientist. When it becomes apparent that Obruchev was abducted, Bond must confront a danger the likes of which the world has never seen before.”
No Time To Die is released in UK cinemas on November 12, 2020.
