Even before Daniel Craig concluded his time as James Bond, fans were already talking about who could replace him. Craig breathed new life into the franchise with his inaugural movie as the MI6 agent, 2006’s Casino Royale. However, just 12 years later he was itching to be done with it all, famously saying “I don’t want to do any more.” Two years before No Time To Die premiered in 2021, Craig confirmed he was done with 007. Now, the burning question remains who will be his successor? Enter: Tom Hardy. 4hd6z

Whenever we talk about who should play the next Bond there are countless names thrown around, with Idris Elba famously leading the pack. (Elba confirmed on an episode of HBO’s The Shop in Sept. 2022 that he’s definitely not playing the part). Henry Cavill, Regé-Jean Page, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson have also been prominent contenders, but of them all, Tom Hardy continues to lead the conversation, especially since he quite arguably received the biggest seal of approval ever in the form of Pierce Brosnan’s personal vote.

The Venom, Inception, Dark Knight Rises, and Mad Max actor has even commented on the role a while back, so let’s take a look at what he said and what it means for James Bond.

What has Tom Hardy said about being cast as James Bond? 176c3j

Tom Hardy was asked about James Bond a few years ago while promoting his FX show Taboo. The actor had recently starred in Mad Max: Fury Road and as you can see, Craig’s departure from the role has been telegraphed for years. Hardy spoke to The Daily Beast back in 2017 when he said, “You know, there’s a saying amongst us in the fraternity of acting, and in the fellowship of my peer group, that if you talk about it you’re automatically out of the race. So I can’t possibly comment on that one! If I mention it, it’s gone.” 

It is not entirely out of character to be somewhat mysterious about Bond, but it also was not as if he was suddenly about to it that he had been cast as the character. This might explain why there aren’t many actors talking about playing the secret agent, as they do not want to jinx their chances.

So, is he or isn’t he playing James Bond? 4hr23

The truth of the matter is we still don’t know who is playing James Bond yet, but it’s unlikely to be Hardy. Not because Hardy wouldn’t be perfect for the part, but because he’s too old to see the character through what would be the next decade of films.

Ever since long-time James Bond casting director Debbie McWilliams told RadioTimes that young actors who auditioned for the part “didn’t have the gravitas” and then Eon Productions followed that up with an alleged report that it is looking for an actor in his 30s, Hardy, who is 45 years old as of this writing, was unceremoniously exited from the conversation.

We won’t know who our next James Bond will be for a while longer, but you can rest assured (or at least 90% assured) that it’s not Hardy, as sad as that is to hear. If Hardy was your top contendor, we’ll let you stew in your dissapoint for a while, but hopefully you can find solace in knowing Hardy still very much attached to Venom 3 and Mad Max: The Wasteland.

The never-ending discussion of who will be the next James Bond in the long-running spy film franchise will inevitably lead to fan infighting, just like the initial casting announcement for Daniel Craig caused back in the day. Now that Craig has retired as the character, with his swan song No Time to Die cementing him as one of the all-time greats who has played the character, let’s take a look back even further into the history of Ian Fleming’s creation. Who inspired James Bond to begin with?

Like many works of fiction, James Bond is not necessarily based on a single individual, but an amalgamation of different people whom Fleming came across in his life. Fleming served in World War II as a British Naval Intelligence commander. Through the course of his military career, he came to know a number of colleagues or knew of others from a distance who ended up serving as inspiration for his characters, including Bond himself. However, it may surprise you to know that some of the people in Fleming’s orbit even shared 007’s namesake in some cases, proving that truth is stranger than fiction.

The “real” James Bond and other sources of inspiration 372o2z

Though Fleming’s military comrades we alluded to earlier most likely influenced the creation of James Bond, the character’s namesake may have been taken after someone completely disconnected from the world of soldiering. You see, Fleming was a fan of bird watching, and one of his favorite books — Birds of the West Indies — happened to be authored by none other than James Bond himself, an American ornithologist. Fleming once explained why he honed in on the seemingly random source of inspiration as the name for his fiction spy series protagonist (via Esquire):

“I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, ‘James Bond’ was much better than something more interesting, like ‘Peregrine Carruthers.’ Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure – an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department.”

Though the bird-watching book was a favorite of Fleming’s as a child, he would later host the author at his famous Goldeneye estate in Jamaica, the location where Fleming penned many of his spy books and where many of the ornithologist’s favorite West Indies bird species happened to be located. The bird expert was reportedly quite handsome, somewhat akin to Sean Connery himself, but he went by Jim rather than James. However, that wasn’t the only James Bond whom Fleming came across in his life.

James Charles Bond, from Wales, also “served under Felming in WWII,” according to the Esquire article. The individual was reportedly so taken with the idea that he was the “real” James Bond, his family eventually put “007” on his gravestone.

A number of other spies throughout history have also reportedly influenced Fleming’s creation of Bond, such as the gambling-inclined Serbian spy Dusko Popov, the Canadian-born boxing champ turned British agent Sir William Stephenson, and Biffy Dunderdale, the latter of whom was said to have unveiled a tuxedo underneath a wet suit after emerging from the ocean at one point, just like our martini-swilling hero often does.

Daniel Craig’s James Bond swansong No Time to Die is now two years old, and we still don’t have a sniff of news about his successor. Barbara Broccoli has said EON and MGM are going to take time getting it right, though given the ending of the last one, we can at least assume this will be a reboot.

That’s because – spoilers for a 2021 movie incoming – James Bond doesn’t make it to the credits. The superspy is finally put in a deathtrap even he can’t escape from, and after defeating the sinister Safin and saving his daughter, is killed by a missile strike. There’s no ambiguity here. Bond is, as they say, brown bread.

So, where do you go from here? GoldenEye and Casino Royale director Martin Campbell revealed to Express that he thinks it’s actually super easy, barely an inconvenience.

“To be honest, it was fine for me. He gets killed off, which is fine because when they do the next Bond, they’ll completely ignore the fact that he was killed off and Bond will keep going. It’s so simple. There’s no explanation required is there? Daniel Craig was Bond and now the next guy is alive. They’re not going to have a problem with that.”

After five movies about an older Bond dealing with his failing body and sense of obsolescence, we’re hoping EON go the other way when Bond returns. Perhaps a younger take on the hero is a smart way forward, with a story focused on how his skills let him seamlessly navigate a digital world rather than battle against it. Then again, Tom Cruise is doing exactly that in Mission: Impossible.

The ongoing strikes may slow down the Bond production line, though theoretically British (and Irish and Australian) actors can still work as their union isn’t on strike. Fingers crossed we get an unveiling and indication of direction soon, because while we’ve been assured “James Bond will return,” it sure is taking a while.

Indiana Jones 5, in which she plays Indy’s goddaughter Helena, isn’t the first time that Phoebe Waller-Bridge has ed an iconic action/adventure franchise that concludes the legend of an aging hero. Although she didn’t appear on screen, the actress/writer contributed to the script for 2021’s epic 25th 007 film No Time To Die, which marked Daniel Craig‘s final outing as James Bond.

Although it’s believed that Craig was the one to bring her aboard in the first place, in order to revitalize the screenplay, Waller-Bridge has now revealed that she initially had some creative differences with both Craig and producers over the depiction of the super-spy’s character.

During a talk at London’s Haymarket Theatre (via DailyMail), the Fleabag creator itted that she didn’t have enough of a grasp on Bond’s personality at first because she didn’t do her homework.

“I’m not very good at homework. That says a lot,” Waller-Bridge explained. “Sometimes it is frustrating when you say, ‘I think this is genius,’ and they are like, ‘Next time.'”

Waller-Bridge went on to recall that her initial pitches for the movie were turned down because her ideas were too “camp” and even too “misogynistic,” something that definitely didn’t gel with Craig’s vision for the role that he’d played since 2006’s Casino Royale. As she put it:

“It is fun playing in someone else’s sandpit for a while as you learn stuff. I certainly learned what my Bond film would be like. I learned how mine might have been slightly too camp. A bit misogynistic really. Daniel (Craig) knows that character better than anyone.”

Whatever its faults, NTTD arguably portrayed the most emotionally mature and fully evolved version of Bond we’ve ever seen on film, what with the character declaring his love for Madeline (Lea Seydoux), becoming a father to Mathilde, and then sacrificing himself to save both his family and the whole world. Waller-Bridge’s take may have been more in line with prior 007s, then, but Craig was clearly keen to move things forward with his last outing in the part.

But, who knows, maybe Waller-Bridge could get to deliver her notion of what a Bond film should be like next time around, once the next incarnation of the immortal secret agent is finally announced to the world.

2021’s No Time to Die was a very conclusive final adventure for Daniel Craig’s James Bond. The actor successfully redefined what 007 could be in the modern era, delivering a killer performance, ambitious action scenes and a ridiculous amount of style and panache. Ever since his Bond went up in smoke, fans have been eagerly anticipating who’ll next slide into the tuxedo.

The rumor mill has been busily spitting out names apparently under consideration, with front-runners including Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Jack O’Connell, Harry Styles and Regé-Jean Page. It seems this is all just speculation, as according to producer Barbara Broccoli, casting hasn’t even started after she was questioned by LADBible on the BAFTAs red carpet.

“No, we haven’t even started casting yet. There isn’t even a script.”

Our take is that they’re likely to go for a younger actor. Craig was 38 when he made Casino Royale and 51 when making No Time to Die, with his character arc focusing on his age and the toil his action-packed job takes on his body. The Bond producers will presumably want to lock in someone for at least four movies and the stately pace of the franchise’s development means they’re looking for a 15-year commitment.

We suspect they won’t want to retread the same story as the last Bond, so perhaps we’ll see them mimic the classic Connery formula and cast an actor in their early 30s. Either way, it’s looking like an announcement is a long way away yet, though as always…

James Bond will return.

While actor Daniel Craig has a new franchise forming with Knives Out, the world will always his time as James Bond and now the English-American actor has revealed he had his character’s end in mind from when he first began back in 2006.

The 54-year-old reveals the fact about his iteration of the character’s demise in No Time to Die in a new article published by The Sunday Times. While outlining his new career mission — which is apparently to make people laugh — the star says he initially thought his work in Casino Royale would be one and done, but, after its premiere, the way the future would unfold took shape.

“I was driving away from the Berlin premiere of Casino Royale with Barbara Broccoli. I had genuinely thought I would do one Bond movie, then it would be over. But by then we knew we had a hit on our hands. I realised the enormity of it, so I said to Barbara, ‘how many more? Three? Four?’ She said, ‘four!’ I said, ‘OK. Then can I kill him off?’ She said, ‘Yes.’”

The rest, of course, has been cinematic history. At one point before his final turn in the role, Craig said he would rather cut his wrists than do more work as the character, though he later apologized for this and at the moment appears to be happier without the pressure of the franchise on his shoulders. Glass Onion co-star Dave Bautista stated as much in a recent article published by Entertainment Weekly.

What comes next remains to be seen. Craig has been rumored to be up for a role in the MCU and Brian Johnson has begun writing the third in the Knives Out franchise for Netflix only recently — which Craig is contracted to play the lead once more. Until then, it is unclear where the actor will pop up — or which accent he will be spouting either.

Even years before its premiere, we knew that Daniel Craig’s run as James Bond would end with No Time To Die, but no one could’ve expected the writers to actually conclude 007’s story in such a definitive manner.

By the end of the film, Bond realizes that he cannot reunite with his loved ones because Lyutsifer Safin injected him with a nanobot capable of killing Madeleine Swann and her daughter. The Secret Service agent with a license to kill ultimately decides to sacrifice himself and destroy Safin’s island, and Swann watches as dozens of ballistic missiles rain down on the stronghold, destroying everything in their proximity.

No Time To Die may have been the movie to deal the final blow, but according to Skyfall and Spectre director Sam Mendes, who told this to Deadline, he was the one who actually set up that fate for Bond.

“‘To be honest, I was amazed that they did it,’ he said. ‘But in a way, you could say it was my fault because I killed M. That was the first moment in the series when an actual character acknowledged not only dying, but getting older in any way. Rather than just being replaced by another actor. So, Skyfall changed the paradigm slightly, they acknowledged Bond was aging. He talked a lot about aging in Skyfall, and M dying and the changing of the guard, and then a new M and a new Q and a new Moneypenny. So, in a way, I certainly feel like it was true to what we had been doing.’”

Did it bother Mendes that No Time To Die actually killed Bond?

“It didn’t bother me. I definitely didn’t think, oh, they shouldn’t have done that, what a terrible idea. I suppose that was inevitable, because once you’ve given one great actor a death scene, there’s going to be another great actor on set thinking, maybe I need one of those.”

With Skyfall and Spectre, Bond’s entire world came tumbling down on his head, so that final leap, though surprising, ultimately tied into the larger narrative that was being woven since the early 2010s. Now, with Daniel Craig ing on the Walther PPK to the next person — who is as of yet unannounced — there might be a complete franchise reboot in order for the popular superspy.

Daniel Craig was never going to let his iteration of James Bond go out with a whimper, given that he’d grounded cinema’s most famous secret agent and made 007 more human than ever before. That being said, you could almost hear a pin drop in theaters around the world when No Time to Die made the boldest decision in the history of the iconic franchise during its finale.

The actor’s five-film tenure ended with Bond being definitively killed off for the first time ever, and that came after Craig also became the first incumbent of the tux to be revealed as having fathered a child. It was bold to say the least, and something the creative team fought hard for throughout development, even if it left more than a few purists aghast.

Up until that point, though, No Time to Die had seen the leading man embrace the trappings of classic Bond more than at any other point during Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre by dropping quips and one-liners like it was nobody’s business, although we soon discovered there was an ulterior motive for stringing us along with so many throwbacks.

Reviews remained strong across the board, though, and $774 million at the box office was a hell of a tally for a pandemic-era release, and much praise was deservedly pointed in the direction of Craig’s performance, the stunning action sequences, an all-too-brief scene-stealing turn from Ana de Armas, as well as the cohesive conclusion to the hero’s most well-rounded arc yet.

Sure, the villain is kinda weak, but we can let it slide when it’s a regular Bond problem. No Time to Die has also been riding a new wave of momentum on streaming, too, having been tearing it up all week. As per FlixPatrol, the landmark 25th installment is a Top 10 Prime Video hit in 32 countries, and also ranks among the top-viewed titles on iTunes and Google, so a controversial ending hasn’t put anyone off.

Taste is entirely subjective, but when it comes to something as broad as trying to name the best action epics of the 21st Century, more often than not there’s a huge amount of agreement as the field begins to whittle down towards its upper echelons.

At least, that’s supposed to be the case, but looking at how over 500 commenters have decided to weigh in on a Reddit with their negative opinions towards a post that shared IndieWire’s rundown of the 21st Century’s 50 finest ass-kickers, it’s clear that many genre junkies have been left scratching their heads as to how the list was compiled.

Several of the highest-rated and top-voted comments underline the confusion, with “the most random list I’ve ever seen”, “this list is all over the place”, “too random”, “incredibly dumb”, and plenty other winning soundbites being weaponized to bash what was intended to be a definitive countdown of cinema’s finest explosive adventures since the turn of the millennium.

For what it’s worth, the Top 10 consists of (in descending order) No Time to Die, Fast Five, Train to Busan, The Dark Knight, The Bourne Ultimatum, John Wick: Chapter 2, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, both halves of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, The Raid, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with Mad Max: Fury Road in the number one spot.

While that’s not the worst ranking we’ve ever heard, it’s the controversies further down the list that have ignited furor, most notably the titles to have been omitted in favor of flicks that didn’t exactly find themselves showered in critical or audience acclaim.

Fresh off appearing in Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond, one of the cast of No Time to Die is returning to the espionage genre — albeit in a very different type of movie — for Netflix’s Spy Kids reboot. Robert Rodriguez is renewing his partnership with the streaming giant to relaunch his beloved family-friendly franchise with this untitled project, the fifth film in the series overall.

According to Deadline, Billy Magnussen has ed the Spy Kids reboot, alongside previously announced stars Gina Rodriguez, Zachary Levi, Everly Carganilla, and Connor Esterson. Seeing as those four are playing the family at the center of the story, we can assume that Magnussen is on board as the Spy Kids universe’s latest megalomaniacal villain. Prior bad guys were played by the likes of Alan Cumming, Jeremy Piven, and Sylvester Stallone.

Magnussen is no stranger to bringing bad guys to life himself. In fact, he was a ing antagonist in No Time To Die, not to mention that he was just cast as the Joker in a new DC podcast opposite Christina Ricci as Harley Quinn. The Made for Love actor also recently confirmed that his Aladdin spinoff is also still in the works at Disney Plus.

Spy Kids 5 is set to see the children of the world’s greatest secret agents unwittingly help a powerful game developer unleash a computer virus that gives him control of all technology, leading them to become spies themselves to save their parents and the world. No word yet on whether legacy players Antonia Banderas, Carla Gugino, and Danny Trejo could turn up for a cameo.

As he has done with every other entry in the saga, Robert Rodriguez will write, produce, and direct the movie, alongside co-writer Racer Max. Netflix already aired animated spinoff series Spy Kids: Mission Critical in 2018.

Even though Eon Productions bosses Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have made it abundantly clear many times over that a woman will never be cast as James Bond, the discussion continues to bubble away on the back burner of the pop culture conversation.

Having been a fixture of our screens for 60 years, you can only imagine the uproar and rioting in the streets were the next 007 adventure to hire a female lead. After all, longtime fans of the franchise were borderline apoplectic when Daniel Craig was first announced to be the latest name throwing on the tux, and that was because he had blonde hair.

There are plenty of other ways for actresses to indulge in a spot of globetrotting running and gunning, something Ana de Armas knows full well having been part of the Russo brothers’ impending Netflix actioner The Gray Man, while she’s got John Wick spinoff Ballerina and Chris Evans’ romantic adventure Ghosted on the way.

Speaking to The Sun, the fast-rising star explained why she doesn’t want to see a woman “steal” the role of cinema’s most famous secret agent.

“There’s no need for a female Bond. There shouldn’t be any need to steal someone else’s character, you know, to take over. This is a novel, and it leads into this James Bond world and this fantasy of that universe where he’s at. What I would like is that the female roles in the Bond films, even though Bond will continue to be a man, are brought to life in a different way. That they’re given a more substantial part and recognition. That’s what I think is more interesting than flipping things.”

You can’t deny that de Armas makes an excellent point. Instead of reinventing the wheel, the next stage in Bond’s evolution should see the long-running saga continuing to expand, grow, and move with the times.

Any actor who proves themselves handy in the action arena tends to see a huge number of offers start flooding in immediately afterwards, with Ana de Armas becoming one of the latest additions to that ever-expanding list.

Having stolen every single one of her too-few scenes in James Bond blockbuster No Time to Die as Paloma, the Knives Out breakout will be seen on Netflix next week when the Russo brothers’ $200 million espionage epic The Gray Man comes to streaming.

After that, she’s re-teaming with Chris Evans for a third time after replacing Scarlett Johansson in romantic action comedy Ghosted, and will headline John Wick spinoff Ballerina. Despite the evidence we’ve just presented, de Armas revealed to Elle that she doesn’t want to be typecast as an ass-kicker.

“The truth is, I never thought I was going to be an action actor. It wasn’t my thing. You have to be careful, because it’s not what I want to put the focus on. This is not where I’m the most comfortable, to be honest, because I feel ridiculous. And it takes a lot of work.”

If she keeps knocking it out of the park, then the offers are going to keep coming her way, especially if The Gray Man and Ballerina prove successful enough to launch standalone franchises of their own.

It’s not the worst position to be in when the bigger budgets tend to yield the biggest paychecks, but NC-17 biopic Blonde is also generating plenty of buzz around de Armas’ lead performance, so it’s not as if she’ll be stuck in a rut of running and gunning that she’ll never be able to escape.