Denis Villeneuve is no stranger to franchises. After directing a string of acclaimed features that included thrillers Prisoners (2013) and Sicario (2015), the Quebecois filmmaker established himself as force to be reckoned with in the science fiction genre with 2016’s Arrival, which landed Villeneuve his first franchise film, Blade Runner: 2049 (2017), delivering one of science fiction’s greatest sequels ever. The same can be said of Dune: Part Two (2024), his second franchise and indeed the second entry of his ongoing adaptation of Frank Herbert’s famous and supposedly “unfilmable” novels, which is set to conclude with Dune: Part III, releasing this December.
Despite the mammoth undertaking his Dune adaptations have been, Villeneuve has already had his next project lined up since last year, where he signed on to direct arguably the most significant and storied franchise of all, James Bond, which is being rebooted by Amazon, who acquired MGM – and the rights to the Bond franchise – in 2022.
Since then, the question on every Bond fan’s lips has been about who will play MI6’s greatest fictional spy. The decision is an enormous one, not just because James Bond is one of the most iconic (and profitable) characters in the history of cinema, or that it will decide who plays him for the next ten or twenty years, but also because this actor must follow Daniel Craig, who is considered by some to be the greatest Bond ever, arguably besides Sean Connery, of course.
Even before Craig hung up his tuxedo and put down the martini glass, fans have been casting his successor, with the likes of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill, and Idris Elba being amongst the overwhelming favourites. While Amazon and Villeneuve have strived to keep things as under wraps as possible, it is widely reported that they now have a shortlist of actors who are up for the role, and while none of the actors mentioned above are in contention, primarily due to age, it is nonetheless a strong list of talent, but what’s most surprising is that the rumoured front-runner is a wildly unknown commodity.
Due to the casting being so hush-hush, there are some conflicting reports as to some of the names on this supposed shortlist, but based on the majority of reporting, it seems that the search has been narrowed down to Paul Mescal, Jacob Elordi, Harris Dickinson, Callum Turner, Jack Lowden, and Jack Barton.
The most immediately famous names on the list, of course, are Mescal and Elordi, each of whom are Oscar nominated actors and would undeniably do a wonderful job in the role. Dickinson, then, lacks the same kind of public recognition, but he has been firmly establishing himself as a sought after name in the industry with major roles in productions such as The King’s Man (2021), the Oscar-nominated Triangle of Sadness (2022), The Iron Claw (2023), Babygirl (2024), and as it happens, he will playing John Lennon in The Beatles – A Four Film Cinematic Event alongside Mescal, who plays Paul McCartney. However, if further reports are to be believed, these three actors are out of contention, and it comes down to the other three.
Similar to Dickinson, Callum Turner is not quite a household name, but he is a talented actor who is increasingly in demand actor appearing in movies such as two Fantastic Beasts movies (2018 and 2022), the George Clooney-directed biographical drama The Boys in the Boat (2023), fantasy rom-com Eternity (2025), the Apple TV+ miniseries Masters of the Air (2024), and speaking of Apple he will also be playing the lead role in its TV adaptation of the influential science fiction novel Neuromancer. Yet, reporting from Reader’s Digest suggests that Turner, too, is likely out of the running, and that it is now down to Jack Lowden and Jack Barton.
Lowden surely would have been a controversial pick twenty years ago, as Daniel Craig was similarly blonde-haired and blue-eyed, but we have thankfully moved long past such ridiculousness, and Lowden would certainly be an excellent fit for the role.
He began his career on the stage, but then moved into onscreen work, with his first notable role being in the acclaimed thriller ’71 (2014), and by 2017 he was playing a major role in the Christopher Nolan war film Dunkirk, further building on his career with central roles in films such as Mary Queen of Scots (2018), Capone (2020), and Benediction (2021), while he appeared as a form of Sauron in the TV series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. However, undeniably the best argument for Lowden as Bond is his performance in the excellent Apple TV+ show Slow Horses, where he plays a smart but occasionally bumbling MI5 agent alongside Gary Oldman.
Despite such a resume, though, Amazon have hinted that they are looking to depict a younger Bond, in addition to the fact that they may be more inclined towards a “fresh face,” factors which work against the established 36-year-old actor.
Thus, enter 31-year-old Jack Barton. The actor has been a major surprise to the media and bookmakers alike, yet he is not just some dark horse, with reports suggesting that he is the current frontrunner for the role. As unexpected as his rapid ascent in the James Bond sweepstakes has been, he perfectly aligns with Villeneueve’s comments from a year ago, with Deadline reporting that he wanted to cast ““an unknown,” possibly in his late 20s or early 30s,” and while Barton has a number of credits to his name, most notably the coming-of-age rom-com series Heartstopper and its film continuation Heartstopper Forever, he has never played a lead role in an onscreen production.
Nonetheless, it is clear that Villeneuve and his producers, Amy Pascal (fresh off her record-breaking success with Spider-Man: Brand New Day) and David Heyman see something in Barton, and what’s interesting is that in the same Deadline article mentioned above, it was elaborated that people “in the know” claimed that they are looking for “what [Ian] Fleming called “a blunt instrument” — the lethal but “extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened.””
If so, this would be a captivating new direction for the Bond character, and with a writer like Steven Knight (creator of Peaky Blinders and House of Guinness) penning the script, there is sure to be a nuanced, deft gravitas to this rendition of 007.
While it does feel like we are on the cusp of an announcement, fans must practice patience. There is still a ways to go in the casting process and given the enormity of the decision you can be sure it is not something that Villeneuve, Pascal, Heyman, and Amazon MGM are going to rush, but you can certainly expect to know who will be the next actor to play James Bond before the year’s end.