The James Bond Debate Begins After Producers Reveal Casting Talks Have Started

No Time to Die still hasn’t finished its theatrical run yet, having recently become the highest-grossing Hollywood blockbuster to release since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker thanks to a box office total sitting at $735 million heading into the weekend, but that doesn’t mean fans can’t speculate on the identity of the next James Bond already.

Daniel Craig’s sage advice to his successor was “don’t be sh*t”, which are wise words indeed. The shortlist has thrown up several interesting contenders over the last couple of months, with The Umbrella Academy and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Tom Hopper recently addressing his status as one of the current front-runners.

MGM exec Pamela Abdy revealed in an interview that preliminary discussions over the identity of the next 007 have been held, and as you can see from some of the reactions below, that’s already been enough to stir up the conversation on social media.

• MORE FROM THE WEB

Click to zoom 

People looking for the next James Bond should be looking for him in British television or small British films. He’s almost certainly never been the lead in a blockbuster. He’s probably not currently famous. It’s very possible you would not even recognize his name.

— Roderick Cairns (@roddycairns) November 25, 2021

Neither. Idris Elba or Henry Cavill as Bond with Jason Statham as 003 or a Bond Villain or and a smattering of people that could possibly be “Q” and Ralph Fiennes could be “M” still. Tom Holland could be “Q” but I don’t see him as Bond. https://t.co/BSl6mymzbT

— Son Of the Warmaster (@CorellonXVI) November 26, 2021

Idris Elba, Tom Hardy and Richard Madden are probably the names that come up more often than the rest, but Hopper and Bridgerton‘s Regé-Jean Page have emerged as dark horse candidates, along with Alex Norton. Tom Holland apparently talks about it all the time, and then there’s the Henry Cavill-shaped elephant in the room, so we’ll be very curious to see who ends up getting the nod to be the new James Bond.