Who will be the next James Bond? Here are our top 10 predictions
Lotta names thrown out there on the internet, but we shortlisted our picks through acting chops and past roles
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CASTING JAMES BOND is a bit like casting Queen Elizabeth or Bob Dylan. Worlds apart, yes, but all three onscreen depictions require the same thing: they’re going to need a star.
Uniquely, 007 also remains one of the few characters whose succession is followed so feverishly. (Now that we have a new pope, when will the white smoke on Bond appear?) But to pick a Bond is to plant a flag in the sand about what masculinity looks like today, and who represents that. Also to be said in chronicling the next Bond online, fandoms cast their ballots in ‘fan-casts’ faster than studio PRs can get a press release out. Not wholly fruitless, look at the upcoming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
But rumours of a potential new Bond have been thrown around since before Craig retired the mantle in 2021’s No Time To Die. Obvious candidates seemed lined up, picking up their suits from the dry cleaner. Four years on, the role lays vacant. And now that summer blockbusters are back in full swing since the industry halting SAG-AFTRA protests of 2023, a slew of potential candidates are emerging. Taking into account resumes – or more superficially how good they look in a tux – we sifted through the internet’s noise for our own predictions.
Who will be the next James Bond?
Jonathan Bailey
Between Wicked parts one and two and Jurassic World Rebirth, Jonathan Bailey has shot up in the predications polls as of late. The 37-year-old actor’s claim to prominence was in Netflix’s hit Bridgerton series, the Regency-era drama adaptation where Bailey plays a viscount. His character bagging his own season in 2022, he starred across Simone Ashley in arguably the series’ best run yet. Naturally, the question about playing 007 was pitched during his Jurassic world press tour on BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show, to which he responded “That’s an amazingly flattering ask. I mean, it would be hard to say no.” Indeed, it is a “flattering” ask, – who wouldn’t want to be thought of as suave?
Henry Golding
To think of someone as James Bond is to think of them as suave – how do you deliver the line “shaken not stirred” with a straight face? Henry Golding, indeed, ticks that box. His first movie role came in 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians as humble scion Nicholas Young, then followed up in Paul Feig’s Savile Row suited A Simple Favour (and the forgettable sequel); we know Golding looks great in a suit and tie.
Casting the next James Bond has also been a discussion on opening up the role to non-white actors. Half Malaysian (with indigenous Iban Dayak heritage) and raised in England, Golding fits the bill, a would-be first Asian 007. Recently, however, the 38-year-old voiced that while it would be a “privilege”, he voiced to the Radio Times that “sometimes it is good to pay justice to the source material, and how Ian Fleming [Bond’s author] saw this idea of Bond.”
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been hot on everyone’s lips as the new James Bond since November 2022. The following year, The Sun reported the 35-year-old was filming secret screen tests with former producers Barbara Broccoli at Pinewood studios. (Creative control has since been passed to Amazon MGM.) And apparently he smashed it: “Aaron went for a screen test to be the next Bond in September and producers and Barbara loved him. He is now one of the front-runners.”
Playing in major franchises such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, Godzilla and Tenet, suffice to say that the man is big (both in resume and size) enough to take on the mantle. In March 2024, the British tabloid put out that Taylor-Johnson was preparing to put pen to paper. What was made of that since is behind Amazon MGM’s doors, but now he’s on the press tour for the highly-anticipated 28 Years Later.
Regé-Jean Page
Since breaking out as the reclusive duke in season one of Bridgerton (another alum like Jonathan Bailey), Regé-Jean Page has been in a handful of projects where he’s wielding a gun, and involved in some kind of espionage. And being on the hit Netflix show has it perks: a dedicated fanbase will pitch for you to be in more roles. Of course, one of them included James Bond. “Ah, the B word,” he told The Mirror. “I think if you are British and do anything of note, that other people take notice of, then people will start talking about that.” A fair assessment, he continued: “That’s fairly normal and I’m flattered to be in the category of Brits that people have noticed. The concept of having plans in this moment in history is mildly hilarious. I’ve given up making them.” Ah, the F word.
Josh O’Connor
Not our first choice, but the sweet-natured Josh O’Connor has also earned his fair share of James Bond casting predictions after the success of 2024’s Challengers and La Chimera. More of an art-house pick, if producers wanted a tonal shift with an actor of that skill set, O’Connor is on the cusp of box office making stardom. Earlier this Jauary, O’Connor said, “The truth is that . . . I think in the space of a week, I made a joke about, wouldn’t it be funny if I played Bond? Then, me and Daniel [Craig] did an Actors on Actors, and then something else happened, and then suddenly I was James Bond. If I am Bond, I don’t know about it.”
Tom Hardy
The internet is crying wolf with the amount of times it’s been ‘announced’ that Tom Hardy will be the next James Bond. (If anything, it’s helping promote his other recent films. And that’s perhaps the magic of great PR bait.) Even as far back as 2017, five years before No Time To Die, Hardy faced the rumours in an interview saying, “You know, there’s a saying amongst us in the fraternity of acting, and in the fellowship of my peer group that, if you talk about it, you’re automatically out of the race. So I can’t possibly comment on that one. If I mention it, it’s gone . . .” Indeed, to not appear desperate may be the game, but Hardy should definitely be dog-eared.
Cillian Murphy
It’s a high honour to be thought of as a potential Bond by a previous Bond. Cillian Murphy got his stamp of approval by Pierce Brosnan saying, “Cillian would do a magnificent job as James Bond”. As any Irish candidate is to do of high praise, Murphy, 49, swiftly shut it down, telling Hello! that he’s “a bit too old for that”. On another note in 2019, after the success of Peaky Blinders, Murphy commented on the churning of rumours as “a way of generating business for bookies. So someone who happens to be in a TV show and wears a tux occasionally in a TV show . . . But having said all of that, it’s incredibly flattering to be in that conversation.”
Paul Mescal
Paul Mescal finds himself in a similar league as Josh O’Connor: a largely art-house resume on the cusp of blockbuster stardom. His first lick of it came in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, playing the son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus from the 2000 original. Co-star Andrew Scott from All of Us Strangers also fancied the idea, saying in an interview that “He’d probably be a great James Bond.” Not responding to rumours directly, the 29-year-old told Esquire UK, “Would I play Bond? Yeah? I don’t know. If it ever came my way, we’d have a discussion about it . . . I don’t want to say yes or no. I am a massive fan, and will continue to be, regardless.”
Damson Idris
A recent entrant to the James Bond predictions slot machine, Damson Idris in on the rise. Idris is currently on the world press tour for F1: The Movie across Brad Pitt. Another question of a diversity casting was obvious to Idris, who told Hip Hollywood in an interview: “It is an iconic character, I will say that. I don’t know . . . do I look like I could play James Bond?” he said, showing off his black Prada suit. “You never know anything could happen . . . you heard it first Hip Hollywood: Bond is about to be Black.”
Henry Cavill
The towel has been rung dry on the Henry Cavill’s James Bond casting. Since hanging up Superman’s cape, the 42-year-old seemed to clear his schedule for his next super suit. Still, Cavill is a worthy prediction to hold up there, telling the Sunday Times in January 2021, “Time will tell. You don’t know which direction they want to take Bond in and so I like to say that everything’s always on the table.”
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