James Bond Auditions are Underway. But Who Should Be 007?

We’ve gone more than a thousand days without a James Bond in cinemas, but the tuxedo is finally being dusted for a new actor.

On May 14, 2026, Amazon MGM Studios confirmed that the hunt for the next 007 is officially on. The world has been speculating about the next James Bond since 2021’s No Time to Die, but the wait might finally be coming to an end. According to the announcement, casting director Nina Gold — the woman behind the Game of Thrones, The Crown, and Star Wars ensembles — has been brought on to find the next man with a license to kill.

What’s even more exciting than meeting the next James Bond are all the other people attached to the project. Denis Villeneuve is directing and Steven Knight is writing the script. That combination alone increases the hype tenfold, so the only thing left to figure out is who’s actually going to be ordering vodka martinis, outsmarting the villains and showing off to prospective sidekicks in front of a camera soon.

No one has any clue other than the name the rumor mill occasionally spits out. And let’s face it, prediction markets are a circus. As The Hollywood Reporter explained, quoting a longtime franchise insider, “99 percent of the rumors turn out to be false. Actually, make that 100 percent.”

Well, we’re not going to let that spoil the fun. Here’s every name worth talking about right now — and why some of them might actually deserve the role.

1. Jacob Elordi

Jacob Elordi has been on everybody’s radar ever since starring in a number of high-profile roles in recent years, from Saltburn to Priscilla to an Academy Award nomination for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, not to mention Euphoria and Wuthering Heights. 

The 28-year-old Australian spent February 2026 at the center of a rumor so hot it sent his Polymarket shares from 15 cents to 43 cents in days, after reports circulated that he’d been offered the role outright. Amazon denied it, of course, but the internet has a hard time letting go.

Elordi has also been rumored to be meeting with producers. The main knock is that he’s Australian — but Ian Fleming’s Bond has survived a Scot, an Australian, and a man named George Lazenby, so continental purity has never been a hard requirement.

2. Aaron Taylor-Johnson

No candidate in the race has had a more conspiratorial relationship with the Bond rumor mill than Aaron Taylor-Johnson. For years, he was treated by the internet as a fait accompli, and even now, the only thing standing in his way is the age factor.

At 35, he’s technically on the older end of what Amazon reportedly wants (the studio has leaned toward actors under 30), but he’s been in the conversation so long that ruling him out feels strange. 

The man showed his acting chops in Nocturnal Animals and Kraven the Hunter, so if the filmmakers decide they want someone with a little more mileage over shine, he’s still a fitting choice.

3. Callum Turner

If you had to bet your mortgage on a single name — and apparently thousands of people on Polymarket have been doing something close to that — Callum Turner is your man. At 35, he’s one of those people whose name repeatedly pops up whenever there’s talk of the next James Bond.

Turner is British and can physically portray the part. But more importantly, he recently proved he can carry serious dramatic weight with his starring turn in Masters of the Air, the Apple TV+ World War II epic that required him to spar with an ensemble cast across ten episodes without ever losing momentum.

Yes, Turner certainly looks the part, and the fact that he’s engaged to Dua Lipa helps too, meaning that the franchise would return pre-loaded with not just tabloid oxygen but also its next potential Bond girl.

The clearest signal came at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2026, when Turner was asked directly about Bond and gave a very diplomatic answer. “You’re right, it’s very early for that question. I’m not going to comment on it,” he said, which is not exactly a denial.

4. Henry Cavill

The inclusion of Henry Cavill on this list should be a no-brainer, if for nothing besides the fact that the actor’s James Bond journey is one of the great near-misses in franchise history, lamented by everyone who’s ever taken a good look at Cavill.

For those who don’t know, Cavill was the runner-up to Daniel Craig for Casino Royale in 2006. He was screen-tested and seriously considered, but the studio ultimately passed him over because the producers felt he was too young and too pretty for the grittier reboot they had in mind.

The only obstacle in Cavill’s path is, funnily, his contract with Longines, which is a fellow Swatch Group brand of Omega, Bond’s official watch partner. Bond wearing an Omega while the actor who plays him is publicly contracted to a rival watchmaker creates an uncomfortable negotiation that studios generally prefer to avoid entirely. It’s the kind of detail that sounds absurdly small from the outside, but is reportedly considered quite seriously on the inside.

Other than that little hiccup, we all know Cavill was born to play James Bond, and we’re tired of pretending otherwise.

5. Idris Elba

Idris Elba has been the subject of James Bond speculation for so long that his name appearing on this list feels almost ceremonial, but I think he’s still one of the better choices for the role after Craig. Think about it: his case was always strong on paper and even stronger in practice, with his physical magnetism, his acting chops, and even his commanding roles all screaming 007 to anyone paying attention. 

The initial resistance from a vocal subset of fans who objected on openly racist grounds was — rightly — dismissed by the franchise, the industry, and most sentient adults. What remains is purely practical. At 53, Elba is older than Craig was when he left the role. Amazon presumably wants to go on a long run with its new Bond, perhaps a couple of theatrical outings in the next decade, and Elba might not be able to keep up with the demands of the role.

That being said, I still think it’d be a shame if the industry didn’t find a way to give Elba the Bond moment he’s spent twenty years being told he deserves — and rightly so.

6. Harris Dickinson

Harris Dickinson recently played a model navigating class warfare with sardonic detachment in Triangle of Sadness. He also portrayed the charismatic Samuel opposite Nicole Kidman in the erotic thriller Babygirl. While neither of those credits says James Bond audition tape exactly, the dangerous charm running through both of them absolutely does.

Dickinson has been admirably straightforward about his interest in the role. In 2023 he told Total Film: “I mean, listen, man, you’d be a fool to not entertain that role.” Well, I’ve never entertained the role, Harris, so you probably see something in yourself that the rest of the internet does as well.

It’s not that Dickinson is Bond material, so to speak, but the fact that this will be a Denis Villeneuve film. Villeneuve tends to favor psychological weight over surface elegance, and Dickinson is one of the few names on this list who can deliver both without making it look like work.

7. Theo James

Who wouldn’t cast Theo James as Bond? At 39, he’s outside Amazon’s reported under-30 preference, which is a real obstacle. But James has been circling this conversation for long enough that the bookmakers have clearly decided it’s worth keeping him on the board regardless. 

Forget about Divergent. Catch Theo James in any frame of The Gentleman and you’ll immediately get it. The man has developed into something the early franchise roles never captured, which is an actor who can command a set piece and fill a tuxedo with something other than, uh, good posture.

The honest truth is that Theo James looks more like James Bond than almost anyone currently alive, and in a race that starts with looks and ends with charisma, that is not nothing. 

007 is not Jason Bourne, a man held together by muscle memory and disassociation. Nor is he Ethan Hunt, dangling from a dangerous height and sprinting his way through box office toppers. 007 is sophisticated, and he makes annihilating people look like a lifestyle choice. Theo James can capture that effortlessly.

8. Sam Heughan

Sam Heughan is the candidate who has been in this conversation the longest without ever quite getting traction where it counts, and who keeps refusing to go away. Now, I’ll admit, my love for his role as Jamie Fraser in Outlander makes me partial to the idea of him striding onto a casino floor in a tuxedo instead of a kilt. 

And then there’s the fact that Heughan actually auditioned for Bond before Daniel Craig got the role, later telling Entertainment Weekly that he “probably wasn’t ready for it” at the time. That’s remarkable self-awareness from someone who had just missed one of the most coveted roles in cinema. It also makes you wonder whether he’s spent the intervening decades getting ready for a second attempt.

The thing about Heughan is that he already knows how to play a man who is dangerous, charming and maybe morally complicated. He’s been doing it for eight seasons on television. I’ll probably get flayed for saying this, but Bond is not a radical departure from Jamie. One just has a silent pistol and a better tailor.

9. Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey is, by most reasonable measures, the hottest British actor alive right now — and not purely in the tabloid sense, though that too. He’s post-Bridgerton, post-Wicked, and has a Tony nomination tucked away, becoming one of those rare performers who generates cultural heat across many demographics simultaneously. The theatre crowd knows his stage work. The streaming audience knows his Bridgerton turn. The film audience caught Wicked. He is everywhere, and he is everywhere at once, which is a quality that franchise studios spend enormous sums trying to manufacture.

The case against him is his public persona, which skews warm and openly joyful, a far cry from Bond’s particular brand of cold-blooded elegance. Bond is a man who can kill someone at dinner and order dessert without his heart rate changing. Bailey, at least in his public-facing persona, seems like someone who would feel bad about it afterward.

But isn’t this what people usually feel about an unexpected choice? Even Daniel Craig must have seemed too rough or wrong in the physical sense when he was cast, but he ended up delivering a spectacular Bond, redefining the character for modern audiences.

10. Regé-Jean Page

Speaking of hot Bridgerton alumni who are in this conversation, Regé-Jean Page got here first. In fact, in the immediate aftermath of season 1, he appeared on everybody’s radar, and has retained that excitement ever since. In a conversation with Esquire, he called the speculation “intense” and acknowledged that fans weren’t exactly waiting for an official announcement to make their feelings known.

Regé-Jean Page has the dashing looks. He has the charming and enigmatic personality, he has that aura of mystery that compels you to tell him everything he needs to know. He is British-Zimbabwean, he is 36, and he possesses the specific combination of physical magnetism and effortless authority that this role has always demanded and rarely found.

In fact, thinking about it, there’s not a single reason why Amazon shouldn’t just single out Regé-Jean Page and let his natural charisma carry the new reboot, rather than spending more time and energy and money on a search that already has its answer. Amazon can’t go very wrong with any of the people on this list, but there’s at least one of them who doesn’t even need to audition.

Bonus: Tom Holland

In June 2025, Variety named Tom Holland on Amazon’s initial wishlist alongside Jacob Elordi and Harris Dickinson, and the internet had strong thoughts. Holland is British and charming, that much is certain. 

He’s also a great choice if the powers that be decide to give us a younger Bond after Craig’s run, but the fact that he’s one of the most recognizable actors on the planet, combined with his Marvel commitments, might make the picture blurrier than Amazon wants to deal with right now.

The overlap between the Spider-Man universe and the Bond universe is also, creatively, a genuine tension — Holland has spent years playing boyish, self-deprecating, eager-to-please, and Bond is none of those things. The reinvention would have to be total. Still, Holland is 29, British, and at the peak of his cultural moment. Schedules shift and deals expire. And studios, as you know, have a long history of finding ways to make things work when they want something badly enough. The only question is: Do we?

(featured image: MGM)

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