New Bond to be cast by end of the year
New Bond to be cast by end of the year
Tom McArdleThu, August 6, 2026 at 7:59 AM UTC
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Daniel Craig is a hard act to follow, says producer of next Bond film - Eon Productions/PA
The actor who will play the next James Bond could be announced by the end of the year, a producer has said.
Amy Pascal, who is producing the next iteration of the spy franchise for Amazon MGM Studios, has said that Daniel Craig’s successor as 007 will be someone “stirring and exciting”.
Asked when the public could expect to find out who will be cast as Bond, she told US entertainment website Deadline: “I would say [an announcement by] the end of the year is a good bet. We are being really, really methodical. Having worked with Barbara Broccoli at the studio, I mean, Daniel Craig is a hard act to follow. And it’s got to be something really different that is stirring, exciting and different.”
Amazon, which acquired full creative control of Bond last year, has been auditioning for the role with the help of British casting veteran Nina Gold.
Actors such as Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Callum Turner, Jacob Elordi and Harris Dickinson have all been touted as potential successors. However, there has been speculation that Amazon could reinvent the character and potentially cast a woman or a black actor, given that the streaming giant has previously committed to diverse casting in series such as The Rings of Power, the prequel to The Lord of the Rings.
Sir Idris Elba, who was a front-runner to be Craig’s replacement, ruled himself out of the running and urged the Bond custodians not to make the spy “woke”.
Speaking to GQ in June, he suggested that some audiences would not accept a black Bond, saying: “In realistic terms, some markets just don’t go for that. Bond is big all over the world. And [audiences] won’t [all] go for a black male, an African male, playing Bond. That’s not what they like in their culture. Period.”
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Debbie McWilliams, who cast the previous 14 Bond films, dismissed calls for a reimagining of the character, saying the spy should remain white and male.
At the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, she told Variety: “Ian Fleming [the Bond author] wrote a character, and that’s the character that stays. That’s what I think. I mean, other people might think otherwise, but I don’t think that.”
Callum Turner, who is married to singer Dua Lipa, is one of the favourites to take on the iconic 007 role - Jamie McCarthy/Getty
In another call for Bond’s character to be changed, Trina Parks urged producers and writers to make him monogamous to “reflect the modern world”.
Parks, who starred alongside Sean Connery as Thumper the assassin in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, said she hoped Amazon could reshape the narrative of both Bond girls and the special agent himself.
“Of course I would like them to keep the romance in, but perhaps not give him a multitude of partners,” she said. “The script really has to reflect the modern world, where women are stronger characters and hold powerful positions.”
The Bond franchise has grossed more than £5bn to date, after Fleming’s novels were picked up by Eon Productions in 1961.
Production for the new film is expected to start in 2027, with a release planned for the following year. It will be directed by Dune’s Denis Villeneuve and written by Steven Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
