Quote Originally Posted by Toadflax View Post
They were the same character to a certain extent. The movies are set in present day, which means the License To Kill Bond would be in his late sixties if he were supposed to be the same character as Dr. No. Plus, you get Desmond Llewelyn playing Q from the early days into Brosnan, and then Judi Dench playing M from Brosnan to Craig, even though Casino Royale is an origin story -- it's a wibbly universe that they can kind of do whatever they want with. The Bond franchise is just not concerned with perfect continuity from Bond to Bond, which I think is cool. It allows the Craig pentalogy to be what it is, Spoiler: to literally open with him achieving 00 status and close with his death, but without meaning Bond is gone forever.

As for Craig, he's been desperately wanting to hang up the tux since before Spectre, so there's no way he's coming back outside of maybe a cameo in a prequel or something small like that. Spoiler: I wouldn't be surprised if his agreement to do NTTD stipulated that Bond had to die in a way that made it very clear there was no way he could have survived.
I think it's highly unlikely that Craig will be back for Bond 26, but since there is no body...