James Bond’s former casting director has discounted the current crop of actors in the running to replace Daniel Craig as 007, suggesting they’re already too well known.
Frankenstein’s Jacob Elordi, Babygirl’s Harris Dickinson and Fantastic Beasts’ Callum Turner are currently seen as the most likely candidates to become the next James Bond, with auditions now finally underway.
In previous years, these auditions would be led by Debbie McWilliams, who cast Craig and his two predecessors, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton. But with McWilliams now retired and Amazon in charge of the franchise, the decision now rests elsewhere. However, speaking to The Independent, McWilliams still had thoughts on who should and shouldn’t be the next James Bond — and believes it needs to be an actor has comes “completely out of the blue.”
“It is absolutely essential that he retains a total enigma,” McWilliams said. “I don’t want to see any of [the main frontrunners] as Bond because we now know so much about them,” she added, reflecting that all have established acting careers.
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“We want to know as little about them personally as possible, because that’s what spies are,” McWilliams continued. “We don’t need to know where he goes shopping or who his parents are, or where he lives. We never want to see him at home. And a vital element of the whole thing is his job description. He’s licensed to kill, and we have to believe that he can do that. If you don’t, then you’ve lost the audience.”
When McWilliams cast Dalton and Brosnan, neither were “particularly well known,” she said. Craig, meanwhile, was just starting to find mainstream fame after starring in British gangster film Layer Cake. “Daniel had had a career in independent films and a fairly colourful romantic life beforehand, but he wasn’t a household name, and that helps enormously,” McWilliams reflected.
While Elordi, Dickinson and Turner are popular fan picks, McWilliams pointed back to the initial backlash against Craig being cast as a blond James Bond — before his debut in Casino Royale silenced most of his haters.
“He was such an unpopular choice,” McWilliams said. “Nobody supported it. Not the studio. Not the director… I have a theory that this totally spurred him on. He thought, ‘I’m going to show you bastards,’ and he did. And everybody went, ‘Oh my God, isn’t he wonderful?’ So don’t ask the people who they want, because they won’t know.”Recent months have seen longterm favorite Idris Elba rule himself out of the running, saying it was never “realistic” that he’d win the part. You can also check out what Spider-Man star Tom Holland had to say about rumors about his potential casting last summer. James Bond 26 will be the first 007 film from Amazon MGM Studios and new producers David Heyman and Amy Pascal, who took over from Bond franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Dune director Denis Villeneuve has signed on to helm the movie.Image credit: Cindy Ord/Getty Images.Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
