The Search for the Next James Bond Is Officially On
You could be the next 007. Probably not. But Amazon MGM Studios wants you to know the door is open.
The studio confirmed Thursday that auditions are officially underway to find the next James Bond — the first Bond film under Amazon MGM's ownership and the first with Denis Villeneuve in the director's chair.
"The search for the next James Bond is underway," the studio said in a statement. "While we don't plan to comment on specific details during the casting process, we're excited to share more news with 007 fans as soon as the time is right."
Villeneuve — the director behind Dune and Dune: Part Two — brings serious cinematic weight to the franchise. Amy Pascal and David Heyman will produce. The script is being written by Steven Knight, creator of Peaky Blinders, who told the 2026 BAFTA TV Awards that the project is going "really, really well" before adding: "I'm not allowed to talk about Bond."
The Bonds Before This One
Seven actors have played James Bond across nearly 30 official films in the Eon Productions canon. Sean Connery originated the role in Dr. No in 1962 and set the template everything that followed has been measured against. George Lazenby stepped in for one film — On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969 — before Roger Moore took over for seven films across the 1970s and 80s. Timothy Dalton had two outings in the late 80s, followed by Pierce Brosnan's four-film run through the 90s and early 2000s.
Daniel Craig's five-film tenure — from Casino Royale in 2006 through No Time to Die in 2021 — is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished in the franchise's history. His final film pulled nearly $800 million at the global box office. Whoever takes the role next becomes the seventh actor in the official Eon lineage, and the eighth if you count David Niven's unofficial, comedic turn in the 1967 spoof Casino Royale — a film that exists in its own separate, non-canonical category.
Who Fans Are Talking About
Speculation has been running hot since Craig's exit five years ago, and the betting markets have been tracking favorites closely. As of this week:
Callum Turner — best known recently as Dua Lipa's fiancé and for his work in The Boys in the Boat — is the current frontrunner at 6/5 odds. Reports suggest Amazon is specifically looking for a younger actor who can anchor the franchise across multiple films, which fits Turner's profile.
Harris Dickinson, who starred opposite Nicole Kidman in Babygirl and has built a strong critical reputation, sits at 3/1. He has said publicly that he'd be "a fool to not entertain that role."
Jacob Elordi comes in at 5/1 after an Oscar nomination for Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. The Australian actor — already known to audiences from Saltburn and Wuthering Heights — would be the second Australian Bond after Lazenby.
Jack O'Connell is at 8/1, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson — who was widely reported to have been offered the role back in 2024 before those reports fell apart — sits at 9/1. Idris Elba and Henry Golding, long-running fan favorites, remain in the conversation further down the odds board.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos publicly asked his X followers who they'd pick when the studio's Bond deal was announced. The question is getting closer to an actual answer now.
Auditions are open. Villeneuve is waiting. The next Bond is out there somewhere — possibly reading this right now.
Probably not, though.
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