James Bond: Ranking The 007 Actors From Worst To Best

2. Daniel Craig

When Casino Royale hit theaters in late 2006, the vocal minority that had threatened to boycott the movie due to the casting of Daniel Craig were surely left to eat their words after witnessing a reboot that turned out to be one of the best Bond movies. In just three outings as cinema's most famous spy, the actor has already established himself as one of the top big-screen 007's thanks to his modern, humanised and frequently bad-!*$% take on the character.

After years of legal battles, Eon finally managed to secure the rights to Casino Royale and delivered a movie that took the series back to basics, stripping away the quips and gadgets in favor of a more realistic approach, and by the end of the black-and-white prologue, Craig had already put any doubts to rest about his suitability for the role. The rebooted timeline sees Bond as a rookie 00-agent, and Craig puts a fresh spin on the character by making him cold, brutal, vulnerable and culpable to mistakes, traits not usually associated with the iconic spy.

While Quantum Of Solace was a creative misstep for the franchise, Craig's performance was not one of the movie's many problems, with Skyfall giving the actor the distinction of starring in two of the best Bonds. While one of the major criticisms of Craig's take on the character is a relative lack of humour (although he did turn The Queen into a Bond girl), Skyfall saw the actor deliver his most charismatic performance as 007 yet.

James Bond needs to be constantly reinvented in order to stay relevant, and Daniel Craig brings a physicality and magnetism to the role that sees his version stand as arguably the most well-developed and complex big-screen 007.