And so the 007 saga rumbles on…

Since Spectre was released last year, there’s been a certain sense of uncertainty over the future of Bond, James Bond. Well, in his Daniel Craig form, that is. During the promotional tour for the most recent 007 outing, Craig said he’d rather slit his wrists than return to play Britain’s greatest spy again. Of course, after much uproar, the actor moved to play down his comments as nothing more than a joke. Hilarious, no?

Following that bizarre situation, it was believed that Craig indeed was done with the Bond franchise, with Sony going as far as offering him a reported $70 million to return for just two more outings as one of cinema’s most iconic characters. Despite the mega bucks on the table, Daniel Craig still didn’t want to return as Bond. Well now comes one further update on the situation, and it involves even more mega-bucks than the aforementioned mega-bucks.

As reported by RadarOnline, Sony has made a new offer to Craig that would see him pocket a frankly ludicrous $150 million for just two more Bond pictures. To equate it to our British shores, that works out at approximately £112 million. Whether you’re talking dollars or pounds, though, it’s still a ridiculous amount of money no matter how you look at it.

A source told the outlet, “The studio is desperate to secure the actor’s services while they phase in a younger long-term successor. has played a genius hand. Everyone knows how much executives adore him, and the idea of losing him at such a crucial time in the franchise isn’t an option as far as all the studio honchos are concerned.”

The same source added, “They will shoot two more films, which will be made virtually back-to-back, preferably featuring Daniel as 007 before he passes the figurative baton to someone else for a third movie that will mark the start of a new era.”

When it became a very real possibility that Daniel Craig wouldn’t be returning to the franchise, the immediate favourites to replace him were Idris Elba and Tom Hiddleston, with names like Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender also in the conversation.

Craig landed the James Bond gig back in 2005, with 2006’s Casino Royale the first of his four outings as 007. Even though he’s been pretty adamant that he won’t be back in the famed tux in the future, could he really be willing to turn down $150 million for shooting a couple of back-to-back movies? We’ll have to wait and see…

As ever, expect more on this as and when it develops.