Next James Bond will still be a British chap, says leaked memo
No female New Zealander Bond, says Amazon
The conversation around the next Bond actor has trundled on for years, but for those few out there concerned about 007 becoming a short Australian woman, it sounds like you don’t need to worry.
The Daily Mail claims to have seen an “internal memo” passed around at Amazon that says James Bond will remain a British man. Or, to use the exact claim, his gender and nationality won’t change with this next casting.
All of this was brought into sharper focus in recent days after Amazon MGM Studios acquired the rights to creative control over the movie future of James Bond, in late February, reportedly spending a billion dollars to do so.
It basically means Jeff Bezos and his minions have nabbed the steering wheel away from Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who has worked within the Bond series her entire career.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bezos wanted to bump Broccoli out of the picture, after hearing reports of her declaring the Amazon execs at the James Bond helm “idiots.” And there may have been a certain expletive beginning with F you could add to the front of that quote, too.
Broccoli hasn’t slipped away entirely, though. Within this new deal, Wilson and Broccoli are still considered “co-owners” of James Bond, but presumably won’t have any power to challenge Amazon’s more unwavering decisions.
Who is the next James Bond?
According to the latest betting odds, favourites for the role of the next James Bond include Josh O’Connor, James Norton and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Our readers say Tom Ellis or Henry Cavill should get the job. But both of those may be a little old for Amazon’s casting folks.
Tom Ellis is 46, Cavill is 41. And with even the first new-era James Bond presumably at least a couple of years away, any hope for a long-lasting Bond actor needs to have a little more youth on their side.
In a recent interview with the Sunday Times, former Bondsman Pierce Brosnan has said he thinks it’s a “given” Bond should be British — it, after all, being a key component of the character. He also seems to be in favour of Amazon’s move to take over control of the franchise, calling it the “right decision.”
This will mean No Time to Die will be the last film in the Broccoli era. And while it’s not quite on the level of 2012’s brilliant Skyfall, it’s surely not a bad way to bow out.