No Time to Die, 1st major movie delayed over COVID-19, finally premieres

At long last, the time has come for No Time to Die.

The highly-anticipated new James Bond film No Time to Die on Tuesday had its world premiere in London, about a year-and-a-half after it was postponed from an April 2020 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Charles, and Camilla Parker-Bowles were among the guests who attended the London premiere, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Thank you all for coming tonight," Daniel Craig, who stars as Bond in the movie for the last time, said on the red carpet. "This is amazing. I really, genuinely didn't think we'd get here, but we are."

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No Time to Die in early March 2020 became the first major movie delayed because of the pandemic, with producers initially pushing it seven months to the fall. But the movie ended up being postponed two additional times, and when the latest U.S. release date of Oct. 8 was announced, it was hard to know whether that would stick.

After a long wait, though, the movie is finally about to come out, and Craig told The Associated Press he's "incredibly grateful to MGM and Universal for holding their nerve" and ensuring No Time to Die would still debut theatrically. Star Lashana Lynch told Entertainment Weekly that waiting for the movie to be released was "like having a really good friend that you really want to introduce to the rest of your friends. And your friends are like, 'So when are we going to meet them?'"

While a number of long-awaited blockbusters like Black Widow have finally debuted in recent months, the release of the very first COVID-19-delayed film will be a major symbolic moment for an industry still working to recover from the pandemic. Reviews for No Time to Die have yet to land, though, so it remains to be seen whether the movie will leave audiences shaken and stirred.