Next James Bond odds: 10 names now 10/1 or under to play 007 next
Published:
Next James Bond odds: The leading contenders
NO LESS THAN SEVEN NAMES have a genuine chance of playing James Bond next, according to Ladbrokes.
The bookies have revealed they now have seven names priced 9/1 or shorter to replace Daniel Craig as 007, from Aaron Taylor-Johnson (15/8) to Tom Hardy (9/1), with Henry Cavill (7/2) and Damson Idris (9/2) making up the podium spots. To make things more interesting, there are a further three names at 10/1, including new addition Cosmo Jarvis.
Next James Bond odds
Taylor-Johnson plays the leading role in next year’s Marvel Comics superhero film Kraven the Hunter and the way he bulked up for the role means his body is in tip-top condition to replace Craig as Bond.
The 33-year-old Englishman also reportedly held a secret screen test with producer Barbara Broccoli in September which went down a storm and a few months later apparently filmed the trademark gun barrel teaser footage, so it’s no surprise to see he remains the front runner to wear the famous tux.
Taylor-Johnson rose to prominence as John Lennon in the 2009 film Nowhere Boy and seven years later won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a psychopathic drifter in Tom Ford’s thriller Nocturnal Animals.
More recently he played military commander Ives in Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi and spy thriller Tenet and assassin Tangerine in David Leitch’s Bullet Train.
Cavill has long been one of the front-runners to don the famous tux, but his hopes of playing the super spy seemed to be over when he quit his role in The Witcher to reprise his role as Superman – or so he thought.
The 40-year-old from Jersey made a big announcement on his Instagram page about playing Superman, but a shake-up at Warner Bros meant he was dumped from the role when director and DC Studios co-chair James Gunn revealed he would be writing a new movie focusing on a younger version of the superhero.
Technically, that frees up the suave and sophisticated Cavill to play Bond, something Argylle director Matthew Vaughn said he is “born to do”.
Idris earned rave reviews for his breakout role as ambitious teenage drug dealer Franklin Saint in US crime drama Snowfall, set in 1980s Los Angeles and which ran for six seasons.
The Londoner, 32, hit the big screen as Hakim in 2016 British thriller City of Tiny Lights starring Riz Ahmed and Billie Piper, and made his American film debut a year later in Megan Leavey which tells the tale of a US marine who served as a dog handler.
In the same year, Idris won the Emerging Talent Award at the Screen Nation Film and Television Awards.
The Manchester United supporter is also set to appear alongside Brad Pitt in an as-yet untitled American sports drama directed by Joseph Kosinski.
Norton has played down rumours he was next in line to play the British super spy but that has not stopped tongues from wagging.
When asked whether he had auditioned for the role or held preliminary talks with Bond producers, Norton told Variety magazine: “No, no, no, none of that. It’s a really lovely piece of clickbait media in the UK and anyone can write any story about it and it will get the most incredible sort of hype around it.
“No, no conversations. Basically nothing else to say other than I think they’re probably still working it all out. It’s a big challenge to know which direction to take that huge franchise in. But beyond that, it’s lots of quite fun and bemusing media coverage. There’s nothing concrete behind it.”
Norton returned with a bang as psychopath Tommy Lee Royce in the award-winning BBC police drama Happy Valley for which he had been nominated for a Bafta in the first series in 2015.
The 38-year-old Londoner, who grew up in North Yorkshire, has proved himself as a versatile actor in recent years, playing an Anglican vicar/amateur sleuth in the ITV hit show Grantchester and starring in the crime drama McMafia as Alex Godman, the son of a Russian mafia boss living in London.
His chances of landing the Bond role may also have improved with his performance in Rogue Agent in which he played fake MI5 agent Robert Hendy-Freegard who uses a false identity to kidnap victims for money.
The Bridgerton heartthrob shot to super stardom with his role as the dashing Duke of Hastings in Netflix’s raunchy period drama.
The 35-year-old Londoner hit the screens last July with the release of the most expensive film ever made by Netflix, The Gray Man starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, a spy thriller directed by the Russo brothers, but his most recent role saw him play a paladin in Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves.
Speaking to Elle magazine about the role, Page said: “This guy is the head of the CIA clandestine services. So there’s a lot of sophistication, a lot of power to this character. There’s a lot of shadow and contrast to this character, it’s something that I don’t think people have seen a lot of from me specifically before, which was great fun for me to play with.”
Sound familiar?
Joe Russo, one half of the directorial duo, told the Radio Times: “He’s fantastic. I mean, he has more charisma in his pinky than most people do in their entire body. So you know, we’d watch him do anything – I mean we’d watch him read the phonebook!”
Outside of the top five, Sope Dirisu and Tom Hardy are at 8/1 and 9/1 respectively, completing the list of seven names who are at under 10/1 to play James Bond next. You’ve then got Callum Turner, Cillian Muprhy, and the aforementioned Cosmo Jarvis all at 10/1.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
