Who Will Actually Be The Next James Bond? An In-Depth Analysis
by Tom Nicholson | Esquire | January 11, 2020
Who’s going to take over from Daniel Craig as James Bond when he swaps his Walther PPK for a P45? Who knows. This far ahead of Bond 25’s 2020 release you might as well get the Ouija board out to ask the spirit of Cubby Broccoli what he reckons.
Nonetheless, there are a few orthodoxies to point the way. Traditionally, it’s been a role which elevates actors to the A-list rather than being an A-list vehicle. Look at where past Bonds were in their careers when they got the gig: Sean Connery was an undistinguished jobbing actor best known for fighting leprechauns in Disney’s begorrah-and-blimey Irish tale Darby O’Gill and the Little People; George Lazenby was a car salesman turned chocolate advert mascot who bumped into Broccoli at the barbers; Pierce Brosnan had a perm.
You’ll need a history of hefty, critically respected film parts these days too. Daniel Craig had Layer Cake, Munich and a role as Ted Hughes in Sylvia on his showreel before Bond, and the next will need a similarly solid CV as well as having convinced when jumping out of helicopters and the like. Then there’s the general sense of Bond-ishness: Connery “moved like a panther”, as Cubby’s wife Dana Broccoli put it, and that sense of muscular virility has been an essential part of each Bond actor on screen. These are the 12 frontrunners:
Damian Lewis
The betting on Lewis has drifted a little since Homeland made him a frontrunner, and as he’s approaching 50 he’s unlikely to carry the franchise for the decade or so that’s come to be expected of a Bond actor. That said, there are still a few things which make him uniquely placed to get the gig: he’s read an audiobook of Diamonds Are Forever; he worked with Barbara Broccoli on The Silent Storm in 2014 and she’s known to be a fan of his; and, most notably, Lewis was christened as “the next James Bond” by willowy Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana in 2017 when the two met at the cricket. VOTE HERE
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