James Bond | The list of potential actors is being whittled down

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Casting is still underway for the next James Bond 007 movie, with director Denis Villeneuve said to be ringing actors up about the role. The names of actors occasionally get bandied about, mostly by tabloid newspapers, but Amazon MGM still hasn’t chosen who will replace Daniel Craig as James Bond. In May, the studio began ... James Bond | The list of potential actors is being whittled down

Casting is still underway for the next James Bond 007 movie, with director Denis Villeneuve said to be ringing actors up about the role.

The names of actors occasionally get bandied about, mostly by tabloid newspapers, but Amazon MGM still hasn’t chosen who will replace Daniel Craig as James Bond.

In May, the studio began the audition process for what will eventually be the 26th Bond movie, to be directed by Denis Villeneuve from a script by Steven Knight.

According to Deadline, the auditioning process, overseen by casting director Nina Gold, has completed its first phase. The outlet’s sources suggest that Villeneuve and producers Amy Pascal and David Hayman are personally ringing around candidates to tell them whether they’ve made it through to the next phase of the process, said to begin in August.

All of which sounds like there’s something akin to the X Factor going on behind closed doors. If that’s the case, the successful candidates will next be going to a Bootcamp phase, where (purely in our imaginations) they’re asked to get in and out of an Aston Martin and pose moodily with a Walther PPK.

After that there’ll be a Six-Chair Challenge, then the Judges’ Homes, where the final few actors will be asked to wear a tuxedo and show up on Denis Villeneuve’s doorstep, unannounced. Depending on Villeneuve’s reaction, they’ll either be invited in for a cup of tea and a biscuit or told to sod off.

Then we get to the grand final, where the three remaining would-be Bonds strip to the waist, exchange pithy quips and show off their ability to raise a single eyebrow.

We may have just made all that up.

What certainly is true, though, is that Amazon MGM will want to get the next Bond movie going as quickly as possible, having paid millions to secure creative control over the franchise in early 2025 (and not the billions as previously rumoured).

Insiders suggest that the studio plans to have their new Bond chosen by the end of the year in time for filming to begin in 2027 – by then, Villeneuve will have finished work on his sci-fi sequel, Dune: Part Three.

Will the next 007 be Jacob Elordi, or Harris Dickinson, or will it be some complete unknown? We should have the answer in the coming months.