Daniel Craig may quit as James Bond to star in ‘Purity’ TV show

Daniel Craig’s future as James Bond could be in jeopardy. He is entering into talks to star in a new, US television series Purity, an adaptation of Jonathan Franzen’s novel.

It is reported that Craig will take the lead, although no decision has been made on whether he will quit as 007.

A straight-to-series order of 20 episodes is expected for Purity, which is likely to place considerable time constraints on the 47-year-old.

Craig has helmed the Bond franchise for 10 years, since 2006’s Casino Royale, and has made no secret of his desire to quit Bond, telling Time Out magazine in October that he would rather “slash my wrists” than play the role again.

Last year, he starred as the suave spy for the fourth time, in Spectre, the second-highest-grossing film at the UK box office in 2015, after Star Wars.

It pulled in £94.74m. Spectre’s director, Sam Mendes, will not return for the next film, the 25th in the series.

Purity is to be produced by Scott Rudin — who worked with Craig on 2011’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo — and is caught in a bidding war between Showtime, Netflix, Amazon and FX, among others.

Craig is expected to play Andreas Wolf, the German founder of a WikiLeaks-style website, who promises to help a woman named Purity find her father.

Craig is also to star in an off-Broadway run as Iago in Othello.