James Bond : 5 actors competing to succeed to Daniel Craig

Who will be the next James Bond? The question keeps the British bookmakers busy at the moment. Two years after Cary Joji Fukunaga’s film No Time To Die, which was supposed to be Daniel Craig’s last film as 007, everyone is now waiting to find out who will pick up the torch. After George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, Sean Connery, and Pierce Brosnan, several actors have been approached to play the secret agent created in 1953 by the British writer and former spy Ian Fleming in his novel Casino Royale. Rumors had it that Tom Hardy, Idriss Elba, Tom Hiddleston, or Michael Fassbender would embody the next James Bond, but four new candidates are in competition for the role…

 

1. Aaron Taylor-Johnson: from Kick-Ass to James Bond

 

A young version of John Lennon in Nowhere Boy (2009), an antihero in Kick- Ass (2010), a drug-dealing chemist in Savages (2012), a hitman with a mustache in Bullet Train (2022)… The 32-year-old British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson could succeed to Daniel Craig as the new James Bond. Although he already worked with Christopher Nolan in Tenet and fought a pack of aliens as Quicksilver with the Avengers, the actor has already missed out on a lead role. A few years ago, he was considered for the role of Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man, before Andrew Garfield pipped him at the post. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who is used to action films, would be perfect for the role of the secret agent, especially since he has previously played a Scottish knight in David Mackenzie’s 2018 film Outlaw King. Rumors has it that the actor has already met with the production team of the next opus and that they are looking for a quite famous actor rather than a superstar.

 

2. Regé-Jean Page: the star of Bridgerton

 

Born in Zimbabwe to a Zimbabwean mother and an English father, Regé-Jean Page got his first prominent role in Waterloo Road, a BBC One soap opera in which he played the role of a young gay art teacher named Guy Braxton. He was 25 years old then. Three years later, he joined the cast of Roots, a new version of the famous 1970s TV miniseries about the horrors of slavery. Yet, a completely different role opened the door to success for him… In 2020, he played Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings, in Bridgerton, a free adaptation of the novels of the same name by the American writer Julia Quinn. Broadcasted on Netflix, the series was a real hit and propelled his career. First launched on social media, the James Bond rumor has gradually gained momentum in Hollywood…

 

3. Henry Cavill: from Superman to the secret services

 

Playing the role of James Bond would be the logical follow-up for Henry Cavill, who has already donned the suit of a secret agent twice. First in The Man from U.N.C.L.E in 2015, then as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Fallout in which he teamed up with Tom Cruise in 2018. The sculptural British actor can boast of being both Superman on the silver screen and Sherlock in the Netflix show Enola Holmes. While the name of the charismatic actor has been mentioned a few times, his age – 39 years old – could be a disadvantage as the producers are looking for a man who will be able to play the character for many years to renew the franchise contract.

 

4. Lucien Laviscount: the Netflix product

 

His character as Alfie in the Netflix show Emily in Paris has made his career take off. The 30-year-old English actor of Trinidadian origin dreamed of being a musician in the 2010s, but his first song Dance With You was not a success. In the second season of Emily in Paris, he managed to win over the audience as a jaded banker and suitor to Emily. Although he had been considered for the role of 007, his appearance on the reality show Big Brother in 2011 could be detrimental to him and cost him the role…

5. Cillian Murphy, the new star of the Oscars

 

At the 96th Academy Awards happening on March 10th, 2024, Irish actor Cillian Murphy won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s feature of the same name. And a rumor has been spreading over the past few weeks… The Sun has revealed that the actor might soon be taking on the role of the infamous secret agent, according to Barbara Broccoli, who co-produced the latest film adaptations of the James Bond series along with her half-brother Michael G. Wilson. Actor Clay Bunker, who also starred in Oppenheimer, told the British tabloid: “Cillian is the nicest human but he has that dark side. We forget that sometimes James Bond is like the character Ian Fleming created – a pretty dark character…”