Timothy Dalton had happened to "Licence to Kill". With a worldwide gross of , "The Living Daylights" became the fourth most successful Bond film at the time of its release. In 1998 the second Deluxe Edition of Bond's soundtracks was released. "The Living Daylights" was one of the first soundtracks to receive Deluxe treatment. The booklet/poster of this CD contains MGM's quote about "The Living Daylights" being the fourth most successful Bond film. Since Dalton was contracted for three Bond films, the pre-production of his third film began in 1990, in order to be released in 1991. What was confirmed is that
James Bond filmography the darker character Ian Fleming wrote about". James Chapman also considered Dalton to be closer to Fleming's Bond than the previous actors, writing that Dalton was "clearly less comfortable ... with the witty asides and one-liners ... so he becomes something closer to the Bond of the books, who rarely develops a sense of humour". When reviewing "Licence to Kill", Iain Johnstone of "The Sunday Times" disagreed, declaring that "any vestiges of the gentleman spy ... by Ian Fleming" have now gone; he went on to say that "this character is remarkably close both in deed and action to the