Speculation is escalating about who’ll be cast as the next James Bond.
Ever since Daniel Craig announced that 2021’s “No Time to Die” would be his final outing as 007, the names of numerous British actors have been floated as next in line to carry on the iconic role first played by Sean Connery in 1962’s “Dr. No.”
Here’s Who’s Rumored to Become the Next 007
So many actors have been rumored to be in contention for the role that it’s tough to keep track of them all.
Luckily, Variety has done the grunt work by compiling a list of 45 actors whom viewers can envision suiting up in a tux and suavely ordering a martini — shaken, not stirred, of coure.
Variety’s lengthy list includes the likes of Theo James, Josh O’Conner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Callum Turner, Henry Cavill, Richard Madden, John Boyeda, Tom Ellis, Jacob Elordi, Idris Elba, Riz Ahmed, and even comedian Matt Berry. Meanwhile, there’s also been talk of shaking up the franchise by casting a female Bond, with Michaela Coel and Jodi Turner-Smith mentioned.
Bond’s Casting Director Has Kiboshed Three Hot Actors
GettyWhen it comes to casting the next Bond, all roads lead to casting director Debbie McWilliams. Now retired, McWilliams cast the previous three actors to star as Bond, responsible for bringing Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig to the screen as filmdom’s most popular secret agent.
McWilliams recently spoke with The Independent about the current crop of 007 wannabes. While Callum Turner is reported to be the frontrunner for the role — followed closely by Harris Dickinson and Jacob Elordi — McWilliams revealed that she wouldn’t cast any of them.
The reason: they’re too well known.
Bond Must Be a ‘Total Enigma’
“It is absolutely essential that he retains a total enigma,” she said of the character created by author Ian Fleming.
As she explained, that unknowable quality must exist within both Bond the actor playing the role, in order to pull off the performance convincingly. As she sees it, actors who are already heavily identified with other roles simply carry too much baggage to be 007.
“I don’t want to see any of them as Bond because we now know so much about them,” she said of those three particular actors. “We want to know as little about them personally as possible, because that’s what spies are. We don’t need to know where he goes shopping or who his parents are, or where he lives. We never want to see him at home. And a vital element of the whole thing is his job description. He’s licensed to kill, and we have to believe that he can do that. If you don’t, then you’ve lost the audience.”
She’s Looking for Actors Who’ve Been Under Hollywood’s Radar
When she cast Dalton and Brosnan, neither had experienced the level of fame they’d go on to achieve as Bond. “Timothy and Pierce weren’t particularly well known,” she explained.
Similarly, the casting of Craig — who played Bond in five films spanning from 2006 until 2021 — came at a time when he was far from the star he would eventually become. “Daniel had had a career in independent films and a fairly colorful romantic life beforehand, but he wasn’t a household name, and that helps enormously,” said McWilliams.
While she won’t be casting the next Bond film, she has a very solid idea of the kind of actor she envisions in the role. According to McWilliams, she wants “to see somebody who is completely out of the blue.”
Daniel Craig Was a Controversial Choice to Play Bond
While her instincts about Craig wound up being right on target, McWilliams took a lot of flack when she pushed him as the star of “Casino Royale.”
“He was such an unpopular choice,” said McWilliams. “Nobody supported it. Not the studio. Not the director.”
Looking back, she remembered that the press conference announcing him as the next Bond – with Craig arriving via speedboat on the Thames — was “completely disastrous” as a PR stunt.
“I’ve never seen anybody look as uncomfortable as Daniel did that day. It was awful,” she recalled. “And all these reports came out, that he couldn’t drive, he couldn’t do this, he couldn’t do that, and I have a theory that this totally spurred him on. He thought, ‘I’m going to show you …’ and he did. And everybody went, ‘Oh my God, isn’t he wonderful?’ So don’t ask the people who they want, because they won’t know.”
