Craig, back as Bond, keeps fans on edge

After months of gossip, actor confirmed to Stephen Colbert that he will indeed return for another movie.

NEW YORK » Daniel Craig’s 007-era will die another day.

After months of gossip and denials, Craig Tuesday night confirmed to Stephen Colbert on the “Late Show” that he will indeed return for another James Bond movie. The yettitled film is due out November 2019.

“We’ve just been trying to figure things out,” Craig told Colbert. “I always wanted to. I needed a break.”

The 49-year-old actor’s stewardship of James Bond has spanned four films — and now will go for a fifth.

Rumors and debates over who should be the next 007 have been nonstop for years, as has Craig’s frequent hints about calling it quits. In 2015, he famously said he’d rather “slash my wrists” than make another Bond movie, a comment he later explained as a kind of joke from the fatigue of just completing one.

Yet even while Craig keeps donning the tux, the next-Bond handicapping has been a year-round business. Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston, Jack Huston and Riz Ahmed are just some of the actors who have been linked to the role — some of them for the better part of the decade.

Others have lobbied for a female 007, like Charlize Theron. Idris Elba has been a favorite for at least two years, going to back to when Bond author Anthony Horowitz suggested he was “too street” for the part.

It’s as though Craig has always wanted his future with James Bond a little up in the air — shaken, if you like — so as to avoid the stasis that could set in for a decades-old franchise now preparing its 25th film. Craig acknowledged on Colbert that his return had been settled months ago, meaning he was evading questions about Bond as recently as that morning when he told a Boston radio station that “no decision has been made.”

And even as he confirmed he was returning, Craig suggested it will be his last one.

“I think this is it,” he said. “I just want to go out on a high note.”

Daniel Craig