Daniel Craig Needed His Bond to Die So He Could Move Forward: 'I Don't Want to Go Back'

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James Bond will be back, but Daniel Craig has moved on.

The actor, 54, whose run in five 007 movies spanned 2006's Casino Royale to 2021's No Time to Die, says he's not exactly mourning his exit from the iconic role.

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, the Knives Out star admits he bowed out from Bond for multiple reasons.

"Two things, one for myself and one for the franchise," Craig said. "One, for the franchise, was that resets start again, which [the franchise] did with me. And I was like, 'Well, you need to reset again.' So let's kill my character off and go find another Bond and go find another story. Start at [age] 23, start at 25, start at 30."

Craig continued, "The other was so that I could move on. I don't want to go back. I suppose I should be so lucky if they were to ask me back, but the fact is I need to move on from it. The sacrifice that he makes in the movie was for love and there's no greater sacrifice. So it seemed like a good thing to end on."

RELATED: Daniel Craig Steps Out in Rare Appearance with Daughter Ella at London Glass Onion Premiere

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While Craig famously once said after finishing 2015's Spectre that he would rather "slash" his wrists than take on the physical challenge of Bond again, his comments about picking up a litany of injuries during filming are now one of the few regrets he has about playing the secret agent.

"It's my fault because I kind of didn't shut up about the fact that I had all these injuries," Craig told the Los Angeles Times. "I'm pissed off at myself that I ever even spoke about them. I put way more work into the creative side of those movies than I did into the physical side of those movies.

He added, "The physical side of the movies was just the job. I had to do it. I trained, learned the fights, that's kind of my brain not working. The rest of it, the look, the feel, the kind of the temperature of the movies, getting Sam Mendes in to direct Skyfall, that's where the hard work was. Going to the gym is hard work, but it's not really brain hard work."

Now, Craig is on track to portray another memorable character multiple times, revisiting his Southern detective Benoit Blanc from 2019's Knives Out in the movie's sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which hits theaters Nov. 23 for one week before streaming on Netflix starting Dec. 23.

RELATED: Everything to Know About Netflix's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

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The break from Bond has also afforded the actor more time with his wife, actress Rachel Weisz, 52, and their children. In addition to Craig's daughter Ella Loudon — whom he shares with ex Fiona Loudon — he is also dad to a 4-year-old daughter with Weisz, who also has a 16-year-old son, Henry, with director Darren Aronofsky.

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"I'm very, very fortunate as an actor to have got to a stage in my career where I can now go, 'You know what? I'm gonna pick and choose,'" Craig said. "I have a family that I need to be with most of the time, until they hate me, and then I can go away and do some work. That's more important to me right now."

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery hits theaters Nov. 23 for one week before streaming on Netflix beginning Dec. 23.