The New James Bond May Have Already Been Chosen

It’s already been almost a year and a half since the last James Bond film, No Time to Die, opened in theaters. That was a pretty definitive end to the Daniel Craig era of the character. (If you’ve seen the film, you know why.) But James Bond can never end, at least as long as the movies keep making money.

But James Bond also can’t continue until a new actor is chosen for the role. This will be the seventh actor to play Bond in the official film series, after Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Craig. Thus far, we have heard nothing about who could be the new 007, or even when hints of when an announcement might be coming. That said, it seems like we might be getting closer.

Taron Egerton, who would seemingly have to be in the conversation for the new Bond purely on the basis of a resume that includes starring in the Bond parodies Kingsman, says he will not be the next guy to chug martinis and play baccarat against an evil super-villain who wears an eye patch. He told Total Film he knows he is out of the running for the role because, as he put it “I mean, I think they’ve already got someone, and it’s not me.”

Now, Egerton could be mistaken. He might have been told there was a new Bond by someone, and that person could have been given bad or incomplete information. Maybe the producers are choosing between a handful of finalists and Egerton didn’t make the cut. Or it could really be the producers have made their pick and just haven’t finalized the deal with the actor, or they’re still strategizing the best way to launch his (or her?) career as 007.

In the meantime, Egerton will next be seen in the film version of Tetris — really the filmed story of the making of the original Tetris game — starting on March 31 on Apple TV+.

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