Ed Sheeran had already "started writing" the theme song for the 25th James Bond movie when he was replaced by Billie Eilish.
The Thinking Out Loud singer met with Bond producer Barbara Broccoli to discuss writing the coveted theme song when Danny Boyle was attached to direct the film. However, due to creative differences, Boyle left the project and was replaced Cary Joki Fukunaga and Eilish was drafted in to write No Time to Die for the movie of the same name.
During an appearance on That Peter Crouch Podcast, Sheeran admitted he had already started working on his theme when the film's creative team was overhauled.
"You've got to eventually, as an English singer, want to do a Bond song," he stated. "I was within a f**king gnat's pube of doing one, and they changed directors, and then, they just changed scripts and that was it - all the meetings, it was all done. I had started writing it."
He added, "I'm not gonna pretend it didn't hurt not doing it."
However, the experience has not put Sheeran off writing a Bond theme in the future and he would immediately agree to do it if the producers approached him again.
No Time to Die, which marked Daniel Craig's fifth and final outing as Bond, was released in September.
Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell won the Best Original Song Oscar earlier this year for their theme song.
