Who will be the next James Bond? We take a look at the top candidates from Theo James to Cillian Murphy

Speculation about who is going to be the next James Bond reemerges every time any young actor makes an impression in a role that requires wearing a suit.

When Daniel Craig’s long-awaited Bond swansong landed in 2021, one of the first things we thought about was who will eventually succeed poor old Craig, who was beginning to look a bit weary by the end.

The great rumour mill has been churning ever since, and now, following Andrew Scott‘s December comments (where he said that Paul Mescal would “probably be a great James Bond”), and following Cillian Murphy’s Oscar-win last week – which saw his odds of playing the spy soar from 50/1 to 9/1 – it’s never been more fun to speculate.

Now Theo James has weighed in: "Everyone's interested in [Bond] because it's a big part of British cultural identity, but that probably wouldn't be me,” he said to a British paper. “I do think there are better people for that job. And, honestly, it would be terrifying: if you do that, there's no going back. You're opening Pandora's box there.

“You have got to be willing to live a very different life and have a different life for your family. And that would be pretty tricky. Plus, my mates would take the piss out of me. Because they always say, ‘Bondopoulos – the Greek Bond.’” Sounds to us like a strong no.

So could Mescal or Murphy actually be in the running? Unfortunately, at 28 and 47 years old, they just aren’t the right age. Back in January 2023, producer Michael