Who Will Be the Next James Bond?

It's been almost four years since the last James Bond movie, No Time to Die. It was a fitting, if ironic title, considering how the movie killed Daniel Crag's Bond in an explosive send-off that no man—not even an elite super-spy with a license to kill—can physically return from. The years since have been full of speculation as to who in Hollywood might inherit the 007 license (and his enviable wardrobe) next.

But that day is coming sooner than later. In February 2025, Amazon took control of the James Bond franchise away from its longtime stewards, the Broccolis, and is now cooking up the next reboot as we speak. (Prepare yourselves for the Bond Cinematic Universe.) In June, Amazon announced it enlisted Denis Villeneuve, director of Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and the Dune series to helm the upcoming 26th Bond movie, nicknamed "Bond 26" until we get an actual title. Shortly after that announcement, Variety reported the names of three candidates who are in serious contention to play the next Bond.

Between the alleged elite three Amazon is circling and the countless others the Internet has collectively decided ought to be the next James Bond, there are just too many men with that golden eye. Lucky for you, Esquire is here to help make sense of the noise. Here is a breakdown of all the actors that Hollywood insiders say could be the next James Bond. Truly, this is for your eyes only.

Jacob Elordi is one of three British actors under 30 that Amazon is strongly considering to take over as the new James Bond.

Euphoria and Saltburn star Jacob Elordi was one of three candidates identified by Variety who are currently the top choices by Amazon and producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman. Little was said about Elordi in Variety's article from June 2025, other than that he fits the bill as a British actor under 30. Clearly, longevity is the goal for this new era of Bond—just as it was for Craig, who played Bond for 16 years.

If you missed Saltburn and haven't checked out Euphoria, the actor has also surfaced in shows like Netflix's The Kissing Booth and as Elvis Presley in Priscilla. He'll soon star in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, playing the hulking monster as he's brought to life by Oscar Isaac. He's considered a major Gen Z sex symbol, which means the moment he plays Bond, the reboot will have an eager built-in audience seated exclusively to see Elordi in a tux.

Tom Holland, with his partner Zendaya. Holland is currently shooting the next Spider-Man movie, but might Holland also play James Bond?

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever... a 007 can? Though Tom Holland remains committed to the Marvel Universe with work on a fourth Spider-Man movie (under the working title Spider-Man: Brand New Day) now happening in the UK, Amazon is courting the actor for James Bond, per Variety's reporting. Like the other actors on Amazon's top list, Holland is a British star under 30, and given his athletic prowess, he can potentially shoulder the action-heavy Bond franchise for at least another decade or more.

It might also help that Amy Pascal is producing Bond. As the former chairwoman of Sony Pictures, Pascal previously brought the Spider-Man comics to the screen; when she formed Pascal Pictures in 2016, she became the producer of Holland's Spider-Man movies beginning with 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming. Unlike the other candidates named by Variety, Pascal has a deep familiarity with Tom Holland that could work to their advantage in making Bond 26 a reality.

Harris Dickinson is named alongside Tom Holland and Jacob Elordi as another young up-and-coming actor that Amazon is seriously considering for Bond.

He seduced Nicole Kidman (in Babygirl), wrassled with his brothers (in The Iron Claw), and will soon play John Lennon in Sam Mendes' ambitious interconnected Beatles movies. But can he be 007?

The third man named by Variety as one of Amazon's top choices, Harris Dickinson suits the Bond franchise by virtue of his general unfamiliarity. Though he's by no means an unknown actor, Dickinson isn't a household name either. He's a proven talent, but he's just not famous. And no Bond actor before has been famous before they played James Bond. It's kind of an unofficial rite of passage for all James Bond actors, and it's to Dickinson's advantage that he's not yet been part of a major franchise.

Josh O’Connor (Challengers) is a new fan-favorite to play Bond.

Josh O'Connor (Challengers) is another actor thrust into the race. He's featured in a Hollywood Reporter prediction for 2025 that has really caught steam with fans. There's no reporting that suggests the La Chimera star is officially up for the gig, but it felt like it couldn't have been a coincidence that Variety's latest "Actors on Actors" conversation just so happened to feature both Craig and O'Connor. The two even talk about Bond. In the video, O'Connor is particularly interested in Craig's workouts. He asks him about the specific length of time it took for Craig to quickly bulk up for a Bond-ready body. Are we reading too far into this? Or is the universe trying to tell us something?

Josh O'Connor is a surprisingly divisive pick among those in the Esquire office. While some are excited by the idea of his Challengers bad boy donning a tuxedo and ordering martinis, others can't break the image of his character sleeping in his car. But you know who else was considered an unexpected choice that didn't inspire Bond vibes right away? Daniel Craig.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the latest name we’ve heard in the 007 race.

For the longest time, rumors suggested that Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nosferatu) was the man for the job. According to The Sun, EON Productions—which produces the Bond films—even sent Taylor-Johnson a contract for the role. Everyone expected him to say yes, but since then, it's been radio silence. At one point, the man formerly named Kraven was the producers' top choice, per The Sun. “Bond is Aaron’s job, should he wish to accept it,” said an anonymous source. “The formal offer is on the table, and they are waiting to hear back.”

When asked about the job this past March, Taylor-Johnson said, “I find it charming and wonderful that people see me in that role. I take it as a great compliment." He eventually told Esquire that Kraven the Hunter was the only project "in front of me," and that it was "not really for me to say anything." Since then, he's largely echoed similar sentiments in other interviews. Recently, he told Rolling Stone UK, "I can only really talk about the things I’m going to show and tell." Namely, Nosferatu and Kraven. "I’m here to promote those," he said.

Earlier, Matthew Belloni of Puck wrote that Taylor-Johnson met with Broccoli and “the meeting went well.” Belloni added that Taylor-Johnson “fits the younger direction the Broccolis want to go, accomplished but not particularly famous” but might see his celebrity increase this year to a point where he’s “ironically, too famous to take on Bond."

We'd also be remiss not to mention that Aaron Taylor-Johnson has just joined Omega as its brand ambassador. As the preferred watch of James Bond, it's a glaring sign in the actor's favor to follow in Craig's footsteps and represent Omega both on and off the screen.

Regé-Jean Page

Page, Regé-Jean Page.

After his breakout performance on Netflix’s Bridgerton, Page rose to meteoric fame, which meant that Bond rumors inevitably came knocking. But if the British heartthrob is your preferred horse in this race, don’t get your hopes up; he insists that anything you’ve heard is just part of the Bond rumor mill.

“I think there might be an element of cultural translation to be done here,” Page said on The Tonight Show. “If you’re a Brit and you do something of any kind of renown that people regard well, then people start saying the B-word. It’s like a merit badge. You get the B-word merit badge. I’m very, very glad to have the badge. I’m glad to be in such wonderful company of people who have the badge. But it’s a badge.”

Months later, asked again how he feels about the rumors, Page joked, “Yeah, it gets clicks.” He continued, “It’s got nothing to do with me—nothing to do with anything that has happened in any rooms or any meetings. It’s literally just a thing for people to talk about. So it’s flattering, but it’s just a game.”

That said, in August 2021, a source confirmed to Page Six that Page’s name was being bandied about by Bond producers, so there’s still some hope for anyone on Team Page.

Elba, Idris Elba.

Elba has been the frequent name mentioned in the Bond race since 2014, when the Sony email hack revealed an email from then–studio co-chair Amy Pascal that said, “Idris should be the next Bond.” When Elba tweeted, “My name’s Elba, Idris Elba” in 2018, the rumor mill went wild, forcing the actor to later explain himself. “I took the piss a little,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019, “but I was also reminding people that I never got referred to as James Bond. So, I was like, hello, my name is Elba, Idris Elba. It was a joke. I swear to God.”

After decades of white actors inhabiting the role of Bond, Broccoli and Wilson have long been pressured to cast an actor of color. In 2019, Elba opened up to Vanity Fair about the concerns he’d have if cast as the first Black Bond:

You just get disheartened when you get people from a generational point of view going, “It can’t be.” And it really turns out to be the color of my skin. And then if I get it and it didn’t work, or it did work, would it be because of the color of my skin? That’s a difficult position to put myself into when I don’t need to. James Bond is a hugely coveted, iconic, beloved character that takes audiences on this massive escapism journey. Of course, if someone said to me, “Do you want to play James Bond?” I’d be like, Yeah! That’s fascinating to me. But it’s not something I’ve expressed, like, “Yeah, I wanna be the Black James Bond.”

Following the premiere of No Time to Die, Elba confirmed, “No, I’m not going to be James Bond.” Asked if he’d consider taking on the role down the road, he replied, “Who wouldn’t? How amazing would it be to have a Black James Bond? It’s a sign of the times when we can stop talking about Black, white, and color.”

In late 2022, Broccoli and Wilson finally offered a clear response to the Elba rumors. Broccoli told Variety, “We love Idris. The thing is, it’s going to be a couple of years off. And when we cast Bond, it’s a ten, 12-year commitment. So he’s probably thinking, ‘Do I really want that thing?’ Not everybody wants to do that. It was hard enough getting [Daniel Craig to do it].”

There you go. Unfortunately, it’s more evidence that we’ll never see what we’re sure would’ve been the greatness of Elba in the role.

Hardy, Tom Hardy.

In April 2018, Hardy sent the Internet into a tizzy when he Instagrammed a screenshot of a news story saying that he had been selected as Craig’s replacement. “In my tux and on the runway Gtg,” the caption read. Turns out it was all an April Fools’ joke, but the rumors have never stopped swirling around Hardy, who remains a favorite of betting houses and fans alike. He has always stayed mum on the matter, but even Pierce Brosnan, a former Bond himself, has high hopes. “I think Tom Hardy could be a good Bond,” Brosnan said. “I’d be happy to see him do it. You need an actor who can put a bit of wiggle into it—that’s what makes Bond.”

Madden, Richard Madden.

The Game of Thrones alum has long been a popular fan choice for the role of Bond. Madden would be the rare performer who’s actually a lifelong Bond devotee (he’s seen all the movies, and he read all the Ian Fleming novels as a teen), but like Page, he’s quick to discredit the Industrial Bond Complex. “The papers make up a story on a Sunday so they can discredit that story on the Monday so they can sell papers on both days,” Madden told British GQ. “Everyone just loves the rumor mill on that topic. I’m just the current one. There’ll be a different one next week.”

Lynch, Lashana Lynch.

Lynch has already made history as the first woman and the first person of color to inherit the 007 mantle, however temporarily. In No Time to Die, her character, Nomi, inherits Bond’s MI6 designation when he goes into exile. When the news broke, toxic fans hurled racist and misogynist abuse at Lynch, complaining that a Black woman couldn’t be 007. Lynch, for her part, didn’t let the vitriol get her down. “It doesn’t dishearten me,” she said. “It makes me feel quite sad for some people because their opinions, they’re not even from a mean place—they’re actually from a sad place. It’s not about me. People are reacting to an idea, which has nothing to do with my life.”

Broccoli has dismissed the possibility of a female Bond, but hope springs eternal for those betting on Lynch. What’s to say Broccoli and Wilson couldn’t be moved to change their minds with enough pressure from fans?

Murphy, Cillian Murphy.

When Netflix’s Peaky Blinders—a gritty series headlined by Murphy about 1920s gangsters in the UK—became a smash hit, the Bond rumor mill inevitably began to swirl around the leading man. “Everybody is getting excited about the new series of Peaky Blinders and it seems as though [gamblers] are no different,” Harry Aitkenhead, who works at the online-betting site Coral, told the Daily Mirror in 2019. “We’ve been inundated with bets lately on Murphy landing the role as the next James Bond, and he’s certainly a leading candidate now.”

“It seems to be a way of generating business for bookies,” Murphy himself told GQ in October 2019. “So someone who happens to be in a TV show and wears a tux occasionally in a TV show…. But having said all of that, it’s incredibly flattering to be in that conversation.”