Per an item from author Mark Edlitz’s The Lost Adventures of James Bond, his interview with director Jeremiah Chechik pegs the production of the 1998 film The Avengers as the last time Sir Sean Connery would ever embody the role of 007.
While Never Say Never Again was the absolutely final theatrical endeavor that Sir Sean Connery would play James Bond in, one obscure performance lost to time would mark the last time the actor would ever deliver the line “Bond, James Bond” on camera.
Filmed as a birthday greeting for future James Bond franchise actor/previous contender for the role Ralph Fiennes, no one outside of the production has seen that moment.
If it were up to the people that made, or even hinted, at the attempts we’re about to recount though, history would have been extremely different.