This James Bond news has us shaken and stirred.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is reportedly set to take over the role of James Bond, according to The Sun.
Taylor-Johnson, 33, best known for his roles in movies like 2010’s Kick-Ass and 2022’s Bullet Train, reportedly has a “formal offer,” which the actor is expected to sign in the coming days.
Production on the next Bond installment is set to begin later this year.
If the paperwork goes through, Taylor-Johnson will take over the iconic role from Daniel Craig, who played Bond in five films over the course of 15 years. Craig, 56, last appeared as 007 in 2021’s No Time to Die.
The Sun reported Taylor-Johnson was in the running alongside some high-caliber competition, including recent Oscar winner Cillian Murphy, Idris Elba, Henry Cavill and Happy Valley star James Norton.
Just last week, Taylor-Johnson was asked about the possibility of playing Bond, which has been rumored since Craig announced his departure.
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“I find it charming and wonderful that people see me in that role,” he told Numero in an interview published March 13. “I take it as a great compliment.”
Taylor-Johnson, who also won a Golden Globe for his performance in 2016’s Nocturnal Animals, can next be seen in May’s The Fall Guy, alongside Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, and August’s Kraven the Hunter, where he plays the titular superhero.
As for Craig, who first played Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale, he expressed that he didn’t have any regrets about leaving the franchise behind.
“No, none at all,” Craig said on BBC Radio 4’s “Best of Today” podcast in December 2022. “I had an incredibly fortunate 17 years of my life making this. I literally want to spend the next 20 years of my life trying to unhook it all and try and put it into a place because it was incredible. I left it where I wanted it to be. And that I was given the chance to do that with the last movie.”
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During his final appearance as in No Time to Die, the character of James Bond appears to be blown up and killed at the end of the movie. According to Craig, it provided an opportunity for the franchise to reinvent itself in his absence.
“I don’t know if it sounds disingenuous, I said to [James Bond producer] Barbara [Broccoli] a long time ago, back in 2006, ‘If I do all of these movies, and we get it right, can we kill him off,’ and she said, ‘Yes, you can,’” Craig recalled. “I was thinking about myself, about my postponed career and I was trying to think of how that would work, but I was also thinking what they did with Casino Royale.”
Craig continued, “They had the chance to reset with that because they went back to the beginning. I thought you’ll have a chance to reset again. That kind of seems to be like a good move.”
