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The Search for the Next 'James Bond' Actor Has Begun (bbc.com) 68

Posted by EditorDavid from the you-only-live-twice dept.
Variety reports: Amazon MGM Studios started auditioning actors for the part of 007 in the past few weeks, Variety has learned... The next James Bond film will be directed by Denis Villeneuve, the filmmaker behind the "Dune" franchise, "Arrival" and "Sicario." Amy Pascal of the "Spider-Man" films and David Heyman of the "Harry Potter" series will produce the picture, which will feature a script from "Peaky Blinders" creator Steven Knight. Tanya Lapointe ("Dune") is executive producing the film.
The BBC notes it's been five full years since the release of the last Bond film No Time To Die, and 15 months "since Amazon MGM Studios took control of the Bond franchise." But they also offer this list of "the current bookmakers' favourites" for who will become the seventh actor to play the gadget-loving super spy in the franchise's 64-year history: Callum Turner — the 36-year-old actor is the current bookies' frontrunner. He has been in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, was nominated for a Bafta for TV drama The Capture, and starred in Apple TV's Masters of the Air...

Jacob Elordi — the Australian actor, 28, made his name in TV's Euphoria and cult hit film Saltburn, and was nominated for an Oscar this year for playing the monster in Frankenstein. The Rest Is Entertainment host Marina Hyde recently said she'd heard from a number of well-placed sources that he's now "in pole position" to be Bond.

Harris Dickinson — the 29-year-old is playing John Lennon in the forthcoming major Beatles biopics, and has previously appeared in Maleficent, The King's Man, Where the Crawdads Sing and Babygirl, and received a Bafta TV Award nomination for A Murder at the End of the World.

Henry Cavill — the Superman, The Witcher and Mission: Impossible actor is a fan favourite and was widely regarded to have been the runner-up when Craig landed the part. But at 43, is he now too old to start a lengthy stint as 007?

Aaron Taylor-Johnson — the Bafta-nominated 35-year-old, known for films like Kick-Ass, Kraven the Hunter and 28 Years Later, is a perennial contender, and would fit the bill.

Theo James — the suitably suave star, 41, made his name in the Divergent films and has since built his reputation in The Time Traveler's Wife, The White Lotus and The Gentlemen.

...Or producers could well go for one of the many other names who have been touted for the role, or an unexpected choice.

The Search for the Next 'James Bond' Actor Has Begun More | Reply

The Search for the Next 'James Bond' Actor Has Begun

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  • AI (Score:5, Insightful)

    by groobly ( 6155920 ) on Saturday May 16, 2026 @01:36PM (#66146347)

    Just make the next James Bond some AI and leave us alone with this nonsense.

    • At least it's not more Star Wars slop.

      • They wont cast who they should. Honestly James Bond Died in the last film, so they have the opportunity to do something different. They should cast someone young like Tom Holland and do a becoming James Bond reboot. The next movie should start with his orphaning and end with his first of two requisite kills. Defiant in his training, excellent skills display, a seduction, brooding, and a discovery of a love affair with alcohol. The alcohol industry needs it.
        but this Hollywood wont make that film.

        • Heh. Scanned that as "James Bond robot" and thought, "That'll tie it in with the GP's comment".

        • Ugh, totally not interested in a Bond movie like that. They should just go back to being a real adventure/action movie, start with an action sequence and have a megalomania bad guy. And have it set back in the 60s.
        • I'm sick of reboots. And what makes you think Bond-loving audiences would want "something different"? How many times do I have to see a character rebooted so producers can try and appeal to younger audiences?

          And note that Bond was first a Commander in the Royal Navy, so it would be a movie about going through the UK version of Seal training.

    • Just make the next James Bond some AI and leave us alone with this nonsense.

      "The name is Bond-8.0, James Bond-8.0."

    • "Leave us alone" and "AI" are not compatible.

    • Why? Mike Meyers does a great job at it! I love his bond movies.

    • Pay attention, 0x07.

    • Just what we need is to see Bond hallucinating mid-scene.

    • Bond franchise has been bought by Uncle Jeff. So the next Bond will be American (and Jeff's wife Lauren will have a scene as a Bond girl).

    • Oh James, now I know why you have 6 fingersâ¦.

    • They haven't been optimizing for box office returns for decades. At this point I don't even care who they choose or why. I'll continue to cherish Goldfinger and Dr. No, but since what they're making these days isn't 007, there are other, higher quality movies to spend my time on.

      • I've actually gone to the local media resale shop, to get these older Bond movies, inspired in part by Slashdot posts. I've seen some of them before, but when I was a kid so I barely remember. There always seem to be several to choose from, probably because they're popular, and also they file them all under "007" making them extremely easy to find. I've got a backlog to work through now that could take me the rest of the year.

      • but since what they're making these days isn't 007

        The Daniel Craig series of bond was far closer to the depiction of Bond in the books than any other.

        there are other, higher quality movies

        They say not to judge a book by it's cover, but judging the quality of something based on a concept that hasn't even had a project announced yet is a whole new level of dumb.

  • If I were a betting man I'd have a flutter. Buck Cashman in Daredevil: Born Again if the name is unfamiliar.
  • A clean break from a character with something like a 30-film run that they can only do so much with might encourage something new to be written?

    • Please something well written, not sanitized for the censors in a couple of large countries, not cliche dialog, not driveling plots worse than the 12th remake of a bad Marvel Universe movie, not having to 'break ground' for the 1,000th time with an 'iconic' character from a 'marginalized group', not one with the 'evil genius making world destroying weapon X' again, not one with 30 second appearances of different groups just the check all the correct check-boxes, .....

      And not a 45 minute car chase and stunts

    • Of course not, she was 007, not James Bond.

  • Since they killed him off in the last movie, I see no reason to worry about the character James Bond. 007 is just a number. Now they can brand shift over to 007 and away from James Bond.

    James had a good run with many more good movies then bad. All things must come to an end.

    • Since they killed him off in the last movie, ...

      Bond is a Time Lord and he's only regenerated [fandom.com] six times so far -- which explains why he routinely looks different.

    • Well, this last movie - like all the preceding Bond movies - did end with the teaser "James Bond Will Return". But Amazon's in charge now., so maybe they'll do some stupid alternate universe thing, have 007 show up in Middle-Earth or something.

      I've always enjoyed the Bond movies (even the bad ones - turn off your brain and enjoy the car chases), but I don't have high hopes for the franchise going forward. I'd love to be proved wrong though.

  • And I don't have any long range commitments for the next couple of years... And with a bit of coaching, I could pull of an appropriate accent.

    • And with a bit of coaching, I could pull of an appropriate accent.

      That's going to trip you up.

      A while ago, I heard a discussion about the possibility of Denzel Washington playing James Bond. The consensus was that he would do a great job, but there's one small problem: he's not British.

      Too bad Sir Idris Elba is too old now. A Bond of colour would have been refreshing.

      • I didn't know it's now -Sir- Idris. Good on him!

      • Refreshing? No, it would be wrong. James Bond has a thoroughly established appearance and backstory. It was bad enough that they cast several blondes to play him, I see no reason to diver further from Flemming's intent. You can see a sketch by Flemming at the top of the relevant Wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] - and so that is basically how the actor should look.

        • I can't recall a single Bond actor who looked like Ian Fleming's sketch. (Note the spelling of his last name.)

          In any case, Ian Fleming is dead. He is no more. He has ceased to be. He's expired and gone to meet his maker. He's a stiff: bereft of life, he rests in peace. His metabolic processes are now history. He's off the twig. He's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible! He is an ex-Ian-Fleming!

          And that means it's fair game to alte

  • James Bond died in the last one, so maybe this is his dead corpse getting resurrected or something

  • My vote is for Logan Lerman, fwiw...

  • Bond died and I've never liked the fan theory that the name comes with the number - for me it's always been the same guy portrayed by different actors and slightly adjusted for the times in which the movie was made.

    Between Austin Powers and Jason Bourne, both ends of the Bond spectrum have been done, and done better.

    The right holders may not want to hear it, but the Bond franchise needs a longer rest than it's had so far.

    • Bond died and I've never liked the fan theory that the name comes with the number - for me it's always been the same guy portrayed by different actors and slightly adjusted for the times in which the movie was made.

      Yeah, the "it's actually different agents" theory simply doesn't work with the movies themselves. Such as when George Lazenby's Bond resigned in anger (which Moneypenny intercepted) - as I recall, he nostalgically looked through momentoes of the past cases. Or when Barbara Bach's XXX upsets Roger Moore's Bond by mentioning his murdered wife.

      • Its both.

        As you say, previous films had some degree of continuity.

        But with Daniel Craigs Bond, we see him earn the 007 designation in the first film, so that makes his Bond a reboot and self contained.

      • But also he doesn't really age, or at lesst he deages on occasion.

        Maybe we'll get James Bond and the Philosopher's Stone.

    • I've always just seen it as a floating, continually soft rebooting timeline more akin to The Simpsons.

    • Between Austin Powers and Jason Bourne, both ends of the Bond spectrum have been done, and done better.

      You do have a point. The suave self-parody of Austin Powers and the ruthless assassin of Jason Bourne are good, but owe credit to the Bond franchise. (Arguably Austin Powers also builds on Our Man Flint.)

      However, it's interesting to note that there are examples of the influence going in the other direction, specifically from Indiana Jones. Before Raiders of the Lost Ark the film-version of Bond didn't face perils at nearly the same frequency in a single movie as he did after.

  • Make her a chick, (Score:3, Funny)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Saturday May 16, 2026 @03:24PM (#66146467)

    And lame and gay.

    • > And lame and gay.

      Already done in “No Time to Die” (2021) where the new 007 was played by Lashana Lynch who tells Bond she would put a bullet in his knee if he gets in her way ref [youtu.be] :|
  • Ian Fleming's Bond was a great cold war character but his time has passed. The ridiculous gadgets, sexist diatribe, cliche villains, outrageous stunts were fun but each time you watch there is a larger and larger suspension of disbelief. Ill admit i enjoyed half the movies over the years with each actor putting their own spin on the character but after No Time To Die, there really isnt anything left to do. Im hopeful the box office numbers will make this superagent go away.
    • Come on this is Hollywood, a few plot adjustments will still make it work, how about: Bond falls into an alternate universe where robots have put the bulk of humanity out of work to languish on sidewalks while the evil oligarch Bezelimuszuck rakes in all money. In this universe Bond used to work for the oligarchs but now Bond~ works against them, sabotaging missions of imperial conquest against poor and socialist countries like Robinhood of old.

  • It was a different time... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Saturday May 16, 2026 @04:56PM (#66146561)

    The James Bond stories, as written by Ian Fleming were set in the Cold War and economic expansionism that he lived in.
    The sexism was also a product of that time.

    The franchise has made less and less sense since Goldeneye, IMHO. Spoofs have felt more like Bond than the official Bond movies have.

    I think that if you are going to reboot it (again) at all, then it should again be set in the height of the Cold War.
    We see that era in a different light now in retrospect, and there are aspects of that era that I think could be interesting to explore: aspects that the people of the era were blind to because they took it for granted.

    Otherwise, what new could you bring to the franchise? Nobody would be interested in some generic spy movie that is James Bond in name only. Or would they?

    • "Nobody would be interested in some generic spy movie that is James Bond in name only. Or would they?"

      Unfortunately I expect that a lot of people would prefer that over something that might make them think too much.

  • Most good spies look more like George Smiley.

  • To keep this more "news for nerds" (Score:3)

    by Whateverthisis ( 7004192 ) on Saturday May 16, 2026 @05:32PM (#66146589)
    Callum Turner was great in Masters of Air, but the nerdy news is he's been cast as Case in an Apple TV series of Neuromancer. That's something to look forward to for sure.

  • British, and already has a little bit of..........LINE?

  • Thought I recognized one name, Cavill, but never saw anything they listed for him. Musta been somebody else. Hollywood continues its streak of not being part of my life.

    • He was in the Man from UNCLE film, but you can only do so much with a bad script. Guy Ritchie always tries to make things so slick and so often goes too far.
  • Damian Lewis, an excellent actor who conveys both a certain charm and intelligence, somewhat like Kiefer Sutherland in 24.
  • I think he would make a great Bond.
  • Dude looks great in a suit and can handle a gun well enough. Shoot Em Up was awesome. He can pull of gritty street smart and clean cut.

  • Cavill, Henry Cavill.
    I can't wait to see how Spectre responds to Superman who is Bullet Proof.

  • I recognize none of those names - producers, actors, etc. (apart from the Cavil guy, but as TFS says, he's also a bit old now). But what the heck, the last time I saw a feature of any kind may have been 2020 or so ("some" digital medium, due to C19).

    I guess the same thrills that made ol 'doppio zero so attractive to schoolboy me will still be in play in new installments, so I'll give it a pass again.

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