Debbie McWilliams, the James Bond franchise\u2019s longtime casting director, does not want to see rumored contenders Jacob Elordi, Callum Turner or Harris Dickinson pick up the 007 moniker. McWilliams worked on Bond movies for 40 years, starting with 1981\u2019s\u00a0\u201cFor Your Eyes Only\u201d and running through 2021\u2019s\u00a0\u201cNo Time to Die,\u201d and is responsible for casting Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Having retired before Amazon\u2019s acquisition of the Bond franchise, the search for the next 007 actor falls to casting director Nina Gold and director Denis Villeneuve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to see any of them as James Bond,\u201d McWilliams recently told The Independent <\/a>about Elordi, Turner and Dickinson, whose names continue to drive the rumor mill now that Amazon\u2019s search for the next 007 is underway.<\/p>\n More from Variety<\/p>\n \u201cIt is absolutely essential that [Bond] retains a total enigma,\u201d\u00a0she explained. \u201cI don\u2019t want to see any of them as Bond because we now know so much about them. We want to know as little about them personally as possible, because that\u2019s what spies are. We don\u2019t 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\u2019s licensed to kill, and we have to believe that he can do that. If you don\u2019t, then you\u2019ve lost the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n McWilliams continued, \u201cTimothy and Pierce weren\u2019t particularly well known. Daniel had had a career in independent films and a fairly colorful romantic life beforehand, but he wasn\u2019t a household name, and that helps enormously. I want to see somebody who is completely out of the blue.\u201d<\/p>\n Bond should also remain a man because \u201cit\u2019s how Ian Fleming wrote it,\u201d McWilliams added. \u201cWhy would you want to change that? They haven\u2019t changed Harry Potter to Alice Potter or to a different ethnicity. That\u2019s how it was written and that\u2019s how it should remain, I believe.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon confirmed in May <\/a>that the search for the new Bond actor was officially underway. The studio added at the time: \u201cWhile we don\u2019t plan to comment on specific details during the casting process, we\u2019re excited to share more news with 007 fans as soon as the time is right.\u201d<\/p>\n Denis Villeneuve is directing the new 007 movie, which will serve as the 26th installment in the Bond franchise. New casting director Nina Gold has worked on major franchises such as \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d and \u201cStar Wars.\u201d She cast Daisy Ridley as Rey in \u201cThe Force Awakens.\u201d Amy Pascal of the \u201cSpider-Man\u201d films and David Heyman\u00a0of the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d series are producing the new Bond movie. \u201cPeaky Blinders\u201d creator Steven Knight is penning the screenplay.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Debbie McWilliams, the James Bond franchise\u2019s longtime casting director, does not want to see rumored contenders Jacob Elordi,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[237077,47116,169316,458,66288,237001,29343,146,47109,85,46,5039,29345,207027,24835,106632],"class_list":["post-517609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bond-franchise","tag-callum-turner","tag-casting-director","tag-celebrities","tag-daniel-craig","tag-debbie-mcwilliams","tag-denis-villeneuve","tag-entertainment","tag-harris-dickinson","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jacob-elordi","tag-james-bond","tag-nina-gold","tag-pierce-brosnan","tag-timothy-dalton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}