Who will be the next James Bond? Amazon’s tough 007 decision

“Who’d you choose as the following Bond?”

That was the query posed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos this week to his 6.8 million followers on X.

It’s Bezos who will now have the ultimate say on the following 007. He requested for ideas alongside a screenshot of the BBC News story about his firm gaining inventive management of the well-known spy movie franchise.

The selection of Daniel Craig’s alternative will now be Amazon MGM Studios’ greatest choice.

So let’s check out what course the corporate may take, and who’s within the body.

If the replies to Bezos’s name out are something to go by, Henry Cavill is the (on-line) folks’s alternative.

The previous Superman actor, who has mentioned he “would like to play Bond”, was extensively regarded to have been the runner-up years in the past when Craig landed the half for the primary of his 5 007 movies, 2006’s On line casino Royale.

The film’s director Martin Campbell told the Express final yr that Cavill’s audition was “great” and that “if Daniel did not exist, Henry would have made a wonderful Bond”.

There was only one downside. “He simply seemed just a little younger at the moment again then,” added Campbell.

Longstanding Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, who introduced on Thursday they had been stepping down, have beforehand shot down the concept of a youthful Bond.

“Bear in mind, Bond’s already a veteran,” Wilson mentioned in 2022. “He is had some expertise. He is an individual who has been by the wars, so to talk. He is in all probability been within the SAS or one thing.”

Amazon might have totally different concepts – however at 41, Cavill may satirically now be thought-about too outdated, particularly if he stays for a string of subsequent motion pictures.

The following most steadily talked about names within the replies to Bezos had been Tom Hardy, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Idris Elba.

Taylor-Johnson, 34, recognized for roles in Kick-Ass and Kraven the Hunter, was at one stage rumoured to have been provided the job, however no announcement ever materialised.

Kraven bombed on the field workplace final yr, although, which may depend in opposition to him.

The bookmakers had Comfortable Valley actor James Norton listed as their favorite on Friday.

Talking on the pink carpet eventually weekend’s Bafta Awards, Norton, 39, described the hypothesis round him changing into Bond as “so bizarre and bemusing” but “enjoyable”.

Mark O’Connell, writer of Catching Bullets: Memoirs of a Bond Fan, instructed the BBC he thinks Amazon – and whoever they select as the following director – will go for a youthful actor than in earlier occasions, and he hopes they purchase British once more.

“Tom Hardy can be nice, [but] I feel he is, dare I say, too outdated,” he mentioned of the 47-year-old Mad Max actor.

“There’s a whole lot of guys that maintain getting quoted [and] I am like, they’re too outdated.

“I feel Amazon’s going to carry it youthful. I feel we’re taking a look at early 30s. Paul Mescal is an efficient title. Kingsley Ben-Adir, who’s one of many Kens within the Barbie film, I might keep watch over him – he is obtained a kind of [Sean] Connery swagger about him.

“Harris Dickinson, who’s a British actor doing properly in Babygirl with Nicole Kidman in the meanwhile, he is very British,” O’Connell added.

“I hope they follow the British DNA and origins of the function. I feel they’d be silly to maneuver away from that. However time will inform.”

Bond has been performed by two non-British actors prior to now – Australian George Lazenby and Irishman Pierce Brosnan. So do not rule out the likes of fellow Irish stars Mescal, Oscar winner Cillian Murphy, Aidan Turner, or Aussie Jacob Elordi.

Might Amazon break the mould and go for the primary American Bond? If that’s the case, Austin Butler has been mooted.

Different Brits who’ve been shaken however not stirred into the combination embrace Challengers star Josh O’Connor, 34, and Babylon’s Stuart Martin, 39, in addition to White Lotus actor Theo James, who’s 40.

Callum Turner, Richard Madden, Will Poulter and Nicholas Hoult have additionally been recommended, amongst others.

Since Bond – initially the creation of writer Ian Fleming – hit the large display in 1962, first performed by Scotsman Sean Connery, his hair and eye color have modified, to not point out his accent.

However to date, the character’s pores and skin color and gender have remained fastened.

That’s aside from when Lashana Lynch briefly took over the 007 title from Craig’s Bond in No Time to Die.

“James Bond might be of any color, however he’s male,” Broccoli said in 2020.

“I am not notably enthusiastic about taking a male character and having a lady play it. I feel ladies are much more fascinating than that.”

She added: “He needs to be British, so British might be any [ethnicity].”

Bridgerton actor Rege-Jean Web page has been mooted alongside Ben-Adir as a potential first non-white Bond, as have Lucien Laviscount, Paapa Essiedu, Damson Idris, Riz Ahmed and Aaron Pierre.

If Bezos does break Broccoli’s rule and go for a girl, Cynthia Erivo can be a well-liked alternative.

Nevertheless, Idris Elba, 52, the star of The Wire and Luther, mentioned in 2023 that the racist backlash to the prospect of him being Bond “made the entire thing disgusting and off-putting”.

It is not simply the lead function that the Amazon casting division must take into consideration.

“By way of what they might do with the ladies, I might like to see extra fascinating and nuanced feminine characters,” mentioned Monica Germanà, writer of Bond Women: Physique, Style and Gender.

“There’s a rising feminine fandom, so we wish extra fascinating feminine characters teasing Bond’s masculine ego.”

Then there are the villains, who’re the characters with their “pulse on the true world”, Germanà mentioned.

“They symbolize the anxieties we now have in regards to the world. So it would be fascinating what Amazon does with that. Will the following villain be, I do not know, will or not it’s AI? Will or not it’s one thing to do with local weather change? Will or not it’s far-right politics that they faucet into?”

Debating the following James Bond is “a nationwide and worldwide obsession”, BBC Radio 1 movie critic Ali Plumb instructed BBC Breakfast.

“I wish to have a solution for you. I wish to say names like Harris Dickinson or Leo Woodall and say, sure, it is going to be them. But it surely’s all up within the air.”

Chris Hewitt of Empire journal and podcast instructed BBC Radio 5 Stay that whereas he “admired what Craig has achieved”, he desires the brand new administration “to rediscover the enjoyable of Bond”.

Bond fan and writer Ajay Chowdhury added: “I feel Bond in the end is fantasy and it is enjoyable and I feel that leisure worth may very well be introduced again.”

Bond bosses have typically alternated between severe and lighter-hearted lead actors, he mentioned.

“They at all times are inclined to reboot. You have got a severe Bond [like Timothy] Dalton adopted by a lighter Bond, Brosnan. Critical, Craig – and I feel it is time to try this once more.”

Chowdhury thinks the brand new Bond can be “a longtime British actor” with what he calls “the Goldilocks quantity of fame” – not too sizzling, not too chilly.

“They’re going to have performed TV and theatre throughout the Atlantic, however they will not be stars,” he affords.

“They’re going to have simply the correct quantity of fame they usually’ll be younger sufficient to do three or 4 [films].

“Who’s it? We do not know!”