While the next James Bond has yet to be named, the man who most recently played him says he was thinking about killing off the suave British spy as early as 2006. In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Daniel Craig looked back at the road to leaving the character behind.

Don’t read ahead if you want to avoid spoilers for Craig’s final film in the Bond franchise, 2021’s No Time To Die.

When asked by BBC Radio 4’s Martha Kearney whether Craig had any regrets with his Bond being killed off at the end, Craig said (via Variety), “No, none at all… I had an incredibly fortunate 17 years of my life making this. I literally want to spend the next 20 years of my life trying to unhook it all and try and put it into a place because it was incredible. I left it where I wanted it to be. And that I was given the chance to do that with the last movie.”

“He’s not really dead,” Craig added. “I’m gone, but it says right at the end [of No Time to Die] that Bond will return, so he must return at some point.”

Bond’s death was a long time coming. Craig also shared in the interview that in 2006 he had a conversation with franchise producer Barbara Broccoli that if they “get it right” with the Bond films together, “we can kill him off.” Craig adds that Broccoli said, without any hesitation, “Yes, you can.”

Craig’s next film “unhooking” him from the Bond franchise is Glass Onion, A Knives Out Mystery. The madcap whodunit will hit Netflix on December 23–check out what critics think of it so far.