• Daniel Craig as James Bond: Former MI6 agent 007, retired for five years. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga compared Bond to a "wounded animal" and described his state of mind as "struggling to deal with his role as a '00 agent'. The world's changed. The rules of engagement aren't what they used to be. The rules of espionage are darker in this era of asymmetric warfare". Craig stated that the film is "about relationships and family".
• Léa Seydoux as Dr. Madeleine Swann: Psychotherapist daughter of Mr. White, and Bond's love interest who assisted him in the film Spectre. Fukunaga underscored Madeleine's importance in exploring Bond's unresolved trauma from the death of Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale. Seydoux said: "There's a lot of emotion in this Bond. It's very moving. I bet you're going to cry. When I watched it, I cried, which is weird because I am in it."
• Rami Malek as Lyutsifer Safin: Bioterrorist and scientist on a revenge mission against Spectre who becomes Bond's adversary. Producer Barbara Broccoli described the character as "the one that really gets under Bond's skin. He's a nasty piece of work"; Malek as someone who considers himself "a hero almost in the same way that Bond is a hero"; and Fukunaga as "more dangerous than anyone [Bond has] ever encountered", a "hyper-intelligent and worthy adversary".
• Lashana Lynch as Nomi: A new agent, assigned the 007 number. Lynch hoped that her character would bring a new layer of relatability to the world of espionage, saying "When you're dealing with a franchise that has been slick for so many years, I wanted to throw a human spin on it—to deal with anxiety and be someone who's figuring it out, completely on her toes".
• Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory / M: Head of MI6 and Bond's superior officer.
• Ben Whishaw as Q: MI6's Quartermaster who outfits "00" agents with field equipment. Q is revealed to be gay. Whishaw said: "I think I'm done now. I've done the three that I was ... contracted to do. So I think that might be it for me."
• Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny: M's secretary and Bond's ally. Harris says since Spectre, "Moneypenny has grown up somewhat. I think she still has her soft spot for Bond though, that's never going to go. But she's an independent woman with her own life".
• Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter: Bond's friend and a CIA field officer. While Wright was surprised not to be asked to return in Skyfall and Spectre, he felt Felix's return in No Time to Die is given "more weight" by his prior absence. He said the film establishes the core brotherhood of Bond and Felix's relationship.
• Billy Magnussen as State Department agent Logan Ash, assigned by Leiter to support Bond in finding Obruchev.
• Christoph Waltz as Ernst Stavro Blofeld: Bond's arch-enemy and foster brother, founder and head of the criminal syndicate Spectre and now in MI6 custody. Fukunaga said: "Blofeld is an iconic character in all the Bond films. He's in prison, but he certainly can't be done yet, right? So what could he be doing from in there and what nefarious, sadistic things does he have planned for James Bond and the rest of the world?"

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Development of No Time to Die began in February 2016. In March 2017, screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade—who have worked on every Bond film since The World Is Not Enough (1999)—were approached to write the script by producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Purvis and Wade mapped out the story for the film in 2017. Sam Mendes stated that he would not return after directing Skyfall and Spectre. Christopher Nolan ruled himself out to direct. By July 2017, Yann Demange, David Mackenzie and Denis Villeneuve were courted to direct. In December 2017, Villeneuve decided against the role due to his commitments to Dune.

In February 2018, Danny Boyle was established as frontrunner for the directing position. Boyle's original pitch to Broccoli and Wilson saw John Hodge writing a screenplay based on Boyle's idea with Purvis and Wade's version scrapped. Hodge's draft was greenlit, and Boyle was confirmed to direct with a production start date of December 2018. However, Boyle and Hodge left in August 2018 due to creative differences. It was reported at the time that Boyle's exit was due to the casting of Tomasz Kot as the lead villain; however, Boyle later confirmed the dispute was over the script. The release date became contingent on whether the studio could find a replacement for Boyle within sixty days. Cary Joji Fukunaga was announced as the new director in September 2018. Fukunaga became the first American to direct an Eon Productions Bond film and the first director to receive a writing credit for any version. Fukunaga had been considered for Spectre before Mendes was hired, and afterwards had expressed an interest to Broccoli and Wilson about directing a future Bond film. Linus Sandgren was hired as cinematographer in December 2018.

Purvis and Wade were brought back to start working on a new script with Fukunaga in September 2018. Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace screenwriter Paul Haggis turned in an uncredited rewrite in November 2018, with Scott Z. Burns doing the same in February 2019. At Daniel Craig's request, Phoebe Waller-Bridge provided a script polish in April 2019. Waller-Bridge is the second female screenwriter credited with writing a Bond film after Johanna Harwood co-wrote Dr. No and From Russia with Love. Barbara Broccoli was questioned about the MeToo movement at the Bond 25 launch event, where she stated that Bond's attitude towards women would move with the times and the films should reflect that. In a separate interview, Waller-Bridge argued that Bond was still relevant and that "he needs to be true to this character", instead suggesting that it was the films which had to grow and evolve, emphasising "the important thing is that the film treats the women properly".

Some concepts changed during development with Fukunaga…

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The Sony Pictures contract to coproduce the Bond films with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Eon Productions expired with the release of Spectre in 2015. In April 2017, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, and Annapurna Pictures entered a bidding competition to win the distribution rights. MGM secured the North American, digital, and worldwide television rights to the film through its distribution arm United Artists Releasing. Universal became the international distributor and worldwide holder of the rights for physical home media (DVD and Blu-ray) through its subsidiary Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, prior to its joint venture agreement in January 2020 with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
No Time to Die had its world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 28 September 2021, and was released in cinemas on 30 September 2021 in the UK and on 8 October 2021 in the US in 2D, RealD 3D, 4DX, ScreenX, Dolby Cinema and IMAX. The film also opened the same week in September in South Korea and the following week in October in Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia. China and Australia would see the release later in October and November 2021. The film had the highest box office opening weekend takings in the UK for any Bond feature.

No Time to Die was originally scheduled for release in November 2019, but was postponed to February 2020 and then to April 2020 after Boyle's departure. The premiere in China and a countrywide publicity tour, planned for April 2020, were cancelled due to the early outbreak of COVID-19 in the country. By March 2020, the global spread of the virus and the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization prompted a joint open letter from two Bond fan sites addressed to the producers. The letter asked that the release be delayed to minimise the risk of spreading the disease and to ensure the film's commercial success. On 4 March 2020, MGM and Eon Productions announced that after "thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace" they had postponed the release until 12 November 2020 in the UK and 25 November 2020 in the US. No Time to Die was the first major film affected by the pandemic. According to Deadline Hollywood, MGM and Universal needed to assure a strong performance across all international markets. It was hoped that the rescheduling to November would ensure all cinemas, particularly those in China, South Korea, Japan, Italy, and France that were closed due to the pandemic, would be open and operational.

In the early stages of the pandemic, an estimated 70,000 cinemas in China closed, and countries including Australia and the UK closed cinemas to minimise the spread of the virus. Variety said the studio had already spent $66 million on promoting the film, while The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the delay cost MGM $30–50 million in wasted marketing costs, estimating that the global box office losses could have exceeded $300 million had the film stayed in its April 2020 slot. In October 2020, No Time to Die was delayed again to 2 April 2021. The decision to delay the release was made when it became apparent that theatrical markets, especially in the US, would not see full demand. After the delay was announced, the British chain Cineworld, the world's second-largest cinema chain, closed its cinemas indefinitely. Chief executive Mooky Greidinger said the delay of No Time to Die was the "last straw" for Cineworld following a string of other film delays and cancellations.

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