James Bond producers hint at next actor who will play iconic spy: ‘Whiteness is not a given’

Franchise hasn’t announced a new name since Daniel Craig announced his retirement after No Time To Die in 2021

James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli has said the next actor who takes on the iconic role will be in his 30s and not necessarily white.

“It’s a big decision,” she told the Associated Press while talking about who could take the mantle from Daniel Craig, who retired from the role after 2021’s No Time To Die.

The next actor to play James Bond will be “a man”. “He’ll likely be in his 30s. Whiteness is not a given,” the news agency reported.

He will have to agree to doing at least a decade’s worth of films in their contract.

Broccoli said she is prepared to deal with the backlash that inevitably comes after a new name is announced, as happened when Craig was cast.

“Every time we cast a new actor, the films change. It’s the excitement of a new Bond, a new direction,” Broccoli’s co-producer and brother Michael G Wilson said.

“Every one of these people who took on the role offered something new and different.”

Michael G Wilson, Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig in 2022 (Getty)

The current favourite for the role is Kick-Ass star Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Rumours about Taylor-Johnson have been swirling since January 2023 after it was reported that Broccoli had been left impressed by a screen test with the actor.

Former Bond stars James Pryce, Pierce Brosnan and George Lazenby have all backed the Nowhere Boy actor, saying they believe he could be the right candidate.

Also in the running are Regé-Jean Page, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, and Idris Elba, who has been a fan favourite suggestion for years.

Craig was the longest-reigning James Bond in the film franchise, based on novels by Ian Fleming. The story was first adapted for the big screen in 1962, with Sean Connery playing the first iteration of the spy in Dr No.

Craig starred in five James Bond films, starting with Casino Royale in 2006. He also played the famous spy in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012, Spectre in 2015, and No Time To Die in 2021.

Daniel Craig and Gemma Arterton in Quantum of Solace 2008 (Rex Features)

In a recent interview, Craig was asked, “If you were to pass the James Bond torch, who would you love to see play him?”

He responded, “I don’t care.”

On the hunt for the next Bond, The Independent’s Louis Chilton writes: “The longer the delays, the harder it’s going to be for anyone to fill Craig’s well-polished shoes.”

“It is, as any Bond fan will know, a rather precarious time for the franchise, existentially speaking. Spy fiction has never been less in vogue in Hollywood. Outside of a couple of obstinate legacy franchises (Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible films; the supposedly still-ongoing Bourne saga), the genre has largely migrated to the shores of television. Questions have been raised over how exactly 007 can be made fresh once again; a popular but radical suggestion is the idea of a retro-Bond, set during the era of Ian Fleming’s original books. Others have proposed introducing a younger, maybe even adolescent Bond, in the vein of Charlie Higson’s spin-off novel series.”