Sam Mendes critical and commercial success, becoming the 14th film to gross over $1 billion worldwide. Following the success of "Skyfall", Mendes was asked if he was returning to direct the next Bond film. He responded, "I felt I put everything I possibly could into this film and it was the Bond film I wanted to make. And if I felt I could do the same again, then absolutely I would consider doing another one. But it is a big task and I wouldn't do it unless I knew I could." It was reported that one reason Mendes was reluctant to commit
Sam Mendes is from Trinidad, is a Roman Catholic of Portuguese Creole descent, and his mother is an English Jew. His grandfather was the Trinidadian writer Alfred Hubert Mendes. Mendes's parents divorced when he was a child. He grew up in Oxfordshire and attended Magdalen College School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he graduated with a first in English. While at Cambridge, he was a member of the Marlowe Society and directed several plays, including a production of "Cyrano de Bergerac" with Tom Hollander among the cast members. He was also a "brilliant" schoolboy cricketer, according to Wisden and played for Magdalen College