The road to casting James Bond in Bond 26 will reportedly start soon, but with a few key criteria. According to a report by Deadline, Denis Villeneuve will begin the casting process as soon as he wraps production on Dune: Part Three. Rumors have been circulating on who will take up the espionage mantle, but it may not be who anyone is thinking.
Insiders reveal that Villeneuve and his collaborators on the movie aren’t looking for an already established Hollywood star. They want a “fresh face” to lead the new installment.
That’s not all, as they will move forward with casting a male actor as originally written by Bond creator Ian Fleming. It appears Bond 26 is sticking to its roots, which has made the franchise a success all these years by also having the actor hail from the British Isles.
Insiders also detail that they plan to cast an “unknown” to could be in his late 20s or early 30s, who Lemming once called an “extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened.”
With all the criteria they are looking for, it rules out almost all of the Hollywood actors that fans have had in mind. The list includes Timothée Chalamet, Tom Holland, Henry Cavill, Regé-Jean Page, Richard Madden, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Callum Turner, to name a few.
It seems they are following the MCU formula with actors like Tom Holland, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Hiddleston becoming household names after appearing as their on-screen characters in the franchise.
In separate interviews, Glenn Powell and Austin Butler both agreed they weren’t the right actors to play Bond. Their main argument was that Bond had to be authentically British, and not two actors trying to nail a British accent on screen.
With the age bracket they are looking for, the actor who will play Bond will undoubtedly be one of the youngest to play the character. George Lazenby was 29 years old when he appeared in the 1969 movie, and Sean Connery was 31 in Dr. No.
