Paul Haggis, schrijver van de nog titelloze 22e Bond-film, liet tijdens de promotie van zijn nieuwe film In The Valley of Elah weten dat actrice Carice van Houten ondanks een aantal geruchten geen Bond-girl zal spelen. "She's great, isn't she – but she's not going to be in this one."

Haggis deelde ook mee dat de film 2 minuten na het einde van Casino Royale inhaakt, en vanaf daar het verhaal oppakt. De regisseur van het Oscarwinnende Crash had daarbij nog te melden dat "My Bond is an actual assassin; when he kills someone, he kills them with a knife, they're bloody and he pays a price. He denies that he pays a price, but he does. When he sees a woman who witnesses something horrific, and he sees her taking a shower, he doesn't just go in there and fuck her, like the old Bond would have done. He sits there with her, and she says, 'I can't get this blood from my fingernails.' So he helps her get the blood from her fingernails; that's what he does, that's my Bond. So it's a different guy; it's a guy who's much more like these guys, these heroes in Valley of Elah."