Movie Who should be the next Bond?

Sep 19, 2007
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With Daniel Craig bowing out who should be the actor to replace him as James Bond 007?

Rules:
  1. Actor should be over 30 but under 45 (preferably under 40)
  2. Actor must be from the British Isles (including Ireland) or the Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, South Africa, Singapore, India etc)
  3. Any gender
  4. Any ethnicity
  5. Must be above average height (i.e. approaching 6ft or taller)
Notes: Regardless of the actor the character should still be called James Bond and be part of the British Upper Class.
 

PanzerMan

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Madden is the right age but looks too nice to be a Bond.

Need someone early 30s to get 2-3 movies out of them before moving onto the next one. Nothing worse than seeing an old Bond get around like Roger Moore in a view to a kill or Craig in spectre/no time to die.
 
Sep 19, 2007
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Madden is the right age but looks too nice to be a Bond.

Need someone early 30s to get 2-3 movies out of them before moving onto the next one. Nothing worse than seeing an old Bond get around like Roger Moore in a view to a kill or Craig in spectre/no time to die.
Craig could still pull it off but he was suffering from injuries in Spectre. But yeah Roger Moore aged way past the physicality needed for the role by his later movies and looked it.
 
Sep 19, 2007
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If people want to list honourable mentions i.e. Actor that might have made a good Bond but have probably aged out for a long tenure please go ahead.

This category would be for the likes of Idris Elba, Hugh Jackman, Guy Pierce, Charlize Theron, Colin Salmon, Ralph Fiennes etc.
 
Sep 19, 2007
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Here's some good options and some reasons why they might not fit.

Tom Hardy (Too old, too rough)
Kit Harrington (Too short)
Richard Madden (Not rough enough)
Henry Cavill (Already played an iconic character)
Tom Hiddleston (Might make a better villain)
Emily Blunt (Perhaps too short)
Henry Golding (Not rough enough)
 
I think Sam Claflin could make a good Bond. He’s certainly in the right age bracket and has charisma on-screen.

Henry Cavill gets mentioned a bit but I wonder if already having played a big role in Superman would count against him.
 

PanzerMan

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Could do a total reset and get George MacKay to play Bond in his early days before becoming a 00.
 
Dec 20, 2014
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With Daniel Craig bowing out who should be the actor to replace him as James Bond 007?

Rules:
  1. Actor should be over 30 but under 45 (preferably under 40)
  2. Actor must be from the British Isles (including Ireland) or the Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, South Africa, Singapore, India etc)
  3. Any gender
  4. Any ethnicity
  5. Must be above average height (i.e. approaching 6ft or taller)
Notes: Regardless of the actor the character should still be called James Bond and be part of the British Upper Class.
James Bond should absolutely be male. If they want a spy franchise with a female lead, go ahead and create one. Stop overhauling existing properties to make some contrived point about gender parity.

The folks who own the franchise understand this. That's why the next Bond will be male, despite the speculation.

You also don't want anyone too well-known. Forget about Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill and Tom Hiddlestone. Even Idris Elba.
 
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Sep 19, 2007
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James Bond should absolutely be male. If they want a spy franchise with a female lead, go ahead and create one. Stop overhauling existing properties to make some contrived point about gender parity.

The folks who own the franchise understand this. That's why the next Bond will be male, despite the speculation.

You also don't want anyone too well-known. Forget about Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill and Tom Hiddlestone. Even Idris Elba.
I don't want to get into it but if someone wants to suggest a female for the role they can.

Re: Tom Hardy he's probably right on the edge as far as the upper age you'd want to go so that is against him more than his fame.
Re: Cavill and Hiddleston, whilst famous they aren't really famous outside of the Superhero genre so could absolutely still be in the hunt
Re: Idris Alba he's aged out of contention.
 
Sep 19, 2007
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Could do a total reset and get George MacKay to play Bond in his early days before becoming a 00.
Right age (albeit at the lower end) but I don't think he has the right look.

Will Poulter might be an interesting choice he seems to be able to transform himself with a role as well and he's entering the right age range
 
Dec 20, 2014
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I don't want to get into it but if someone wants to suggest a female for the role they can.
Well, that's nice that it's not against the rules. But it's nonetheless a dumb idea and won't happen.

Let's reboot Sex and the City with an all-male cast and see how that flies.

Re: Tom Hardy he's probably right on the edge as far as the upper age you'd want to go so that is against him more than his fame.
Re: Cavill and Hiddleston, whilst famous they aren't really famous outside of the Superhero genre so could absolutely still be in the hunt
Too famous, and already associated with multimillion-dollar franchises. Cavill is already Superman and the Witcher FFS.

Why don't you throw up Chris Hemsworth while we're at it? Playing Thor in the MCU a dozen times shouldn't be an obstacle.
 
Sep 19, 2007
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Well, that's nice that it's not against the rules. But it's nonetheless a dumb idea and won't happen.

Too famous, and already associated with multimillion-dollar franchises. Cavill is already Superman and the Witcher FFS.

Why don't you throw up Chris Hemsworth while we're at it? Playing Thor in the MCU a dozen times shouldn't be an obstacle.
Hemsworth has the right look but he's probably too comedic for the role now not sure the audience would be able to take him seriously enough. His brother Liam would be totally wrong though, just doesn't have the right look.

I'm not sure the fame thing is that big a problem other than preconceptions that the audience might have. For Hemsworth this hurts him for Cavill and Hiddleston I don't think it does. They have the look and the right amount of hard edge to pull it off.
 
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Hemsworth has the right look
What is this based on?

Before Daniel Craig, James Bond was a suave gentleman who looked like he'd never been in the gym. It was only when Craig was cast, after the Jason Bourne films had altered the expectations of the genre, that he needed to look like he'd just come out of the special forces.

Did Pierce Brosnan have "the right look"?

I'm not sure the fame thing is that big a problem
Of course it is. If an actor is already indelibly associated with another character - or more than one - it makes it a harder sell for them to "inhabit" James Bond.

The next James Bond won't be a woman. And it won't be someone who is already A-list. Those are my predictions, anyway.

A bunch of guys trying to get laid? We've had that movie many times.
Dumb response.

The issue is you can't just rehash an existing property with a gender flip and expect people to lap it up purely for the sake of novelty.

How did the all-female Ghostbusters go?
 
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It's so hard to say who has "the look". Until I watched Casino Royale I didn't think Daniel Craig was right.

I think the only real prerequisites are they must look like they can handle themselves, and they must have charisma. They should also be handsome, but that's highly subjective.

I think there is also the issue of the age of the average Bond fan. If the cast someone in their early to mid 30's they will appear too boyish to us oldies.
 
Sep 11, 2003
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With Daniel Craig bowing out who should be the actor to replace him as James Bond 007?

Rules:
  1. Actor should be over 30 but under 45 (preferably under 40)
  2. Actor must be from the British Isles (including Ireland) or the Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, South Africa, Singapore, India etc)
  3. Any gender
  4. Any ethnicity
  5. Must be above average height (i.e. approaching 6ft or taller)
Notes: Regardless of the actor the character should still be called James Bond and be part of the British Upper Class.
Regardless of the gender the character should still be called James Bond? Ok. Not a unisex name but why not.
 
Oct 14, 2005
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Barbara Broccoli & Michael G Wilson, the series' producers, have stated that Bond will always be male. He may be coloured, but he will always be male. That's non-negotiable for them.

So, sure, you could name female options (as per the rules in the OP)- but there's no chance of this ever happening in reality.
 

Cyber_punk

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They will probably say he is too old now, but perfect choice imo

presenter-idris-elba-poses-in-the-winners-room-at-the-house-news-photo-529207352-1552235213.jpg
 
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They have to be younger, a stop-gap older Bond like an Elba or Damien Lewis or whatever wouldn't work right now.

Whilst NTTD's handling of this was frustrating, I think leaning into the 007 rather than the James Bond is the way to go for this decade. Give Lashana Lynch a two film contract for traditional style self-contained goofy Bond adventures, and bring back Goodnight as her offsider/home contact. Have a fella fatale. The Eon team have a pretty good quality control record, in that it is hard for them to produce something truly awful, I'd take the punt. But no universe stuff with Blofeld, M, Q, Moneypenny, etc., strictly '007' films.

As for JB's race, I don't mind, you can easily transfer James's sparse backstory to growing up in a British colonial/protectorate. A really irreverent tongue-in-cheek kinky Daniel Kaluuya, a dashing vicious Henry Golding, go for it! As long as their globetrotting and infiltration is able to blend in enough to evade instant detection, that is where an Asian might be preferable to a black man, especially given the realworld era of geopolitical intrigue we are heading into. Remember the talk of Jinx and Wai Lin spinoffs (which being non-MI6 also opens up other markets of potential). Maybe we weren't ready back then (remember the ignorant way something like G.I. Jane was treated on release)

We don't currently have any Australian options imo, they are all missing an essential component. I'd like to see the Samuels (Xavier & Benedict) as a twin villain team, I could imagine Sam Reid fitting into the Bond films somewhere too, but that's about it. Both Xavier & Sam have done British work and are kind of in that Claflin lane mentioned earlier, but whether they have that hard edge for a Bond I doubt it. We are in a character actor and TV lead era down under imo.

I agree that James Bond will always be male, but there is no reason we can't have some female 007 in that same format with minimal alteration. I love James as much as the next person, but it is the 007 formula that we really love. God knows enough Bond girls/fatales have been 007 worthy of their own by now.
 
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Oct 14, 2005
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I just don't understand how it's supposed to be James Bond again now they've finished NTTD like that.

I could be wrong but don't they ordinarily pick actors that are a bit more obscure? Would rule out the Cavill/Hardy/Elba's etc.
Roger Moore & Pierce Brosnan were anything but obscure, having previously had major TV roles in "The Saint" and "Remington Steele" respectively.

George Lazenby, on the other hand, was male model from Queanbeyan, who had no acting experience at all (which was abundantly clear in OHMSS). They don't come much more obscure than that.
 
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