The Bond Corner: The Men Who Could Be Bond

In a new segment called The Bond Corner, complementing my podcast of the same name, I’ll periodically discuss the world of 007 in various forms…

James Bond Will Return.

Apparently, around Christmas, according to one of the two new producers of the Bond franchise under their new Amazon owners, Amy Pascal. Or at least we may find out by the end of 2026 which actor will be stepping into Daniel Craig’s extremely hard to fill shoes and play the seventh Bond. The man who will literally play 00 Seven. No pressure.

Imagine being one of the actors Amazon approach for this. Imagine stepping into the room and doing the famous screen test Eon Productions made prospective actors do - recreating the scene in From Russia With Love where Bond meets Tatiana Romanova in her hotel room - a tradition I could imagine Pascal and fellow producer David Heyman carrying on. Here’s an example of one with the late, great Sam Neill:

The idea of being James Bond must be daunting in the extreme, even if the character arguably doesn’t have the same pop culture cache as he once did. Amazon are rumoured to be looking for an actor who is on the younger side, maybe the youngest actor to play the role yet (remember Sean Connery was only 31 when he filmed Dr. No), so theoretically some of these actors around the late 20s, early 30s mark might only have seen the Craig films, possibly even just the later ones. One or two of them might have been toddlers when Pierce Brosnan played the role. Yes, I know. Frightening.

Still, somewhere, a chosen few are currently undergoing this process bringing with it 60+ years of cinematic history and the ticket to an entirely new life, one where you are undeniably rocketed to super stardom. Though I often wonder if Daniel Craig could be the last of the megastar Bond’s, indeed he was arguably the first actor since Connery to have Bond be the platform on which to launch a truly A-list Hollywood career. Roger Moore, Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, none quite managed that in the same way, however famous and successful they were.

A lot depends on what space Bond inhabits in the world of Amazon, how successful Denis Villeneuve’s launch film is, and quite who fills the shoes. While no shortlist has been released or anyone seriously confirmed, I’m going to run through (in alphabetical order, based on forename) who are the assumed leading contenders and consider their viability for this very special role:

Considered for quite some time to be a serious contender and, as I mentioned on the podcast, possibly even offered the role at one point in the late stages of Eon and the tenure of Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. If this is the case, one day it will likely to come light, but almost certainly not yet. Will him being a consideration of the old regime cause issues with the new? Not necessarily. While not a household name, he is among the more well-known of these contenders with plenty of successful films behind his belt as a leading man even beyond Kick-Ass.

Is he too old? Craig was 37 when he bagged the role, which was considered fairly young, but they may want someone closer to or just before 30 these days. He might just have missed the boat. For a long time, he didn’t fit the bill for me but as he has evolved as an actor with age, I can increasingly see him working as 007. Bullet Train oddly enough was the film that displayed the edge every actor who plays Bond needs.

Also possibly now the wrong side of 30 for Amazon, and while Turner doesn’t have the career behind him of several others on this list, perhaps the reason he’s considered the current favourite is that he carries a pop culture cache beyond the cinema. He just married pop star Dua Lipa in a vast, well-covered Italian wedding ceremony, making him part of a very sexy artistic power couple, and he’s about to appear in some higher profile projects - Apple’s adaptation of William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Parker Finn’s remake of Possession, where he takes on the role of another would-be Bond, the aforementioned Neill, opposite Margaret Qualley.

Will this be the role where Turner is singled out as having the Bond chops? While popping up in plenty of projects, and displaying a dashing sense of danger, he hasn’t had that part akin to Craig’s Layer Cake or Brosnan’s Remington Steele. If that part comes, he could even further affirm odds on to take up the mantle.

Now we could be talking in terms of being the perfect age, having just turned 30. Dickinson wasn’t necessary a name I would have previously thrown in there but I am starting to see the logic as to why he might be a strong contender. The film that really turned me onto him was Babygirl, where he turned Nicole Kidman’s glamorous middle-class woman into a ball of obsessive jelly. He had a magnetic intensity in that film that you could channel into Bond and his relationship with women.

Equally, he is assembling a resume which has certain possible Bond-in-waiting elements, whether playing with Matthew Vaughn in The King’s Man, or playing another dashing hero in britches-twisting Jane Austen heartthrob Mr Darcy in (yet another) Pride and Prejudice. He perhaps doesn’t quite have the same chiselled, obvious look for 007, but does he have the screen charisma? He might well.

This one is a bit more of a long shot, for me, not just because of the age factor. Lowden has entered the race in part because of Slow Horses, the excellent Apple TV adaptation of Mick Herron’s novels, where he plays exiled MI6 agent River Cartwright. Lowden certainly has the action chops at points in that show but Slow Horses is about as distant from Bond, in tone and style, as you could imagine. It’s not the template in action, even if he’s swimming in similar intelligence worlds.

Lowden is amassing an impressive career, however, on stage and screen. He too is popping up as Darcy in (yet another, on TV) adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, while also nabbing roles in pictures such as James L. Brooks’ Ella McCay and Terence Davies’ acclaimed Benediction. The Scottish factor also echoes Connery, but does Lowden quite have the dash for 007? I’m not entirely convinced.

Someone who undoubtedly has dash is Elordi, who is almost becoming too obvious a choice in some respects now. He is the most overt ‘pretty boy’ on this list, having (much like Turner) come through the ranks as a model before catching fire on the Gen Z baiting HBO series Euphoria, which led to smouldering turns for Emerald Fennell in Saltburn and as Heathcliff (one of literature’s most potent sex symbols, like Darcy) in Wuthering Heights. He’s even played a rather toxic Elvis along the way in Priscilla.

In other words, Aussie born Elordi is rapidly becoming a superstar, and there’s a real whiff of one-time 007 George Lazenby about him. Tall, confident, sensitive yet more than a bit arrogant, you can entirely see how he might inhabit Bond but almost blaze out quite quickly. He’s almost too big for Bond in a way, or could become too big, and make the franchise more about him than the character. I feel like it won’t be him, even though in some ways it might make initial sense.

Honestly, if you had asked me this question about five or six years ago, Norton might well have been my top answer, or top three at least. Happy Valley, Sally Wainwright’s tremendous northern neo-noir, rocketed him to stardom as the intense, dangerous Tommy Lee Royce, and he’s only built on that in recent years before striking franchise gold with a swaggering turn as the mercurial, near psychotic Lord Ormund Hightower in the third season of Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon.

Norton is probably the best actor on this list, able to work as a leading man and a character actor, capable of roles that belie his good looks. He entirely has the visual capacity to play Bond and even as far back as Happy Valley, he proved he had the danger. At 41, he’s for me a tad too old and indeed Norton, who has been asked about Bond plenty of times since 2021, has spoken about chronic back problems that could make any intense action vehicle for him a problem. He probably is ruled out on that real world basis alone.

Again, another actor who in many ways fits the bill of Bond but is now edging just past the age point where he is viable. James is an actor who has quite effectively built on a career that offered him fairly thankless pretty boy parts initially, such as the Divergent young adult series, and he’s now choosing roles where he shows a genuine capacity to act well. He was great in Steven Moffat’s unsuccessful TV version of The Time Traveler’s Wife, and even better in Oz Perkins’ twisted horror, The Monkey.

The role that probably most displays his Bond chops is the TV version of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, but apart from his age, I suspect James’ career might be heading for a more offbeat path. He’s next to be seen in a Kim Jee-woon film, for one. James is another actor who has perhaps missed the boat.

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There will be other names floating around for the role, but we’re probably past the point of Idris Elba or Tom Hardy or Henry Cavill (runner up last time, remember) being in the frame, given their age. It could be one of these men above or, excitingly, it might be someone who comes completely out of nowhere. Whoever it is, they have a massive job on their hands. They need to help Villeneuve, Pascal, Heyman and Amazon create an entirely new era for Bond, as Craig did so seamlessly with Broccoli and Wilson. Getting the casting right here will be crucial.

Who is your bet for the new Bond? Let me know in comments below.

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