{"id":691737,"date":"2026-07-14T20:13:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T20:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/691737\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T20:13:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T20:13:23","slug":"james-bond-contenders-from-tom-francis-to-patrick-gibson-11-actually-realistic-007s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/691737\/","title":{"rendered":"James Bond contenders from Tom Francis to Patrick Gibson: 11 actually realistic 007s"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Glance over the names of the rumoured James Bond contenders<\/a>, and aren\u2019t they all, well, a bit starry? Oscar nominee Jacob Elordi? Paparazzi magnet and recent Dua Lipa betrothed Callum Turner? Future cinematic John Lennon, Harris Dickinson? All attractive propositions from a headline-grabbing perspective, but maybe wrong for a role designed to be slippery and mysterious \u2013 and which, bar Roger Moore at the time he was cast as 007 in 1972, has always been filled by an actor who was vaguely recognisable but wasn\u2019t yet super-duper famous.<\/p>\n

Retired casting director Debbie McWilliams, who helped put Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig in the tuxedo over the years, certainly agreed, telling The Independent in June<\/a> that \u201cit is absolutely essential that [Bond] retains a total enigma,\u201d adding: \u201cI don\u2019t want to see [Elordi, Turner, Dickinson et al] 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 \u2026 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

\"AnthonyAnthony Boyle, Noah Jupe, Patrick Gibson and Tom Francis are among our (actually realistic) new Bond contenders (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

And this also chimes with reports last year that filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, who will allegedly be finalising his Bond following a series of screen tests with different actors in August, is looking for \u201can unknown\u201d Brit possibly in his late twenties or early thirties to play 007. Which probably rules out the Paul Mescals of the world.<\/p>\n

So, with that in mind, we\u2019ve gathered together a list of actually realistic contenders for the role, some based on mysterious appearances in the betting odds, others based on my own (probably incorrect but pfft) intuition.<\/p>\n

Tom Francis<\/p>\n

\"FrancisFrancis at this year\u2019s Met Gala (Getty)<\/p>\n

Perhaps Tom Francis just has a very good publicist who knows how to raise their client\u2019s profile, or the Olivier-award winning actor has zoomed up the bookies\u2019 odds because he\u2019s actually in for a chance here. We first saw his name linked to the role in May, in a Variety news item that claimed the West End leading man (who you may remember from Jamie Lloyd\u2019s Sunset Boulevard redo) had auditioned for Bond.<\/p>\n

Francis, who briefly appeared as a hunky acting school student in that terrible George Clooney movie Jay Kelly last year, is maybe a bit too pretty for Bond \u2013 those big pearly whites, that curtain hair! But he\u2019s 27 (so fits perfectly in Villeneuve\u2019s alleged requirements) and has been acclaimed enough so far to be a promising acting commodity but not so famous that he wouldn\u2019t be seen as a bit of a \u201cdiscovery\u201d for the Bond-makers.<\/p>\n

Arty Froushan<\/p>\n

\"FroushanFroushan at least has the right look (Getty)<\/p>\n

This 33-year-old American-born (gasp!) but UK-raised actor, who you might recognise from the London revival of the American Psycho musical last year, looks a bit like what Grok would spit out if you asked it to build a new James Bond. Or if you were tasked with drawing Jon Hamm from memory. Which is to say that Froushan at least has the right look. He\u2019s also floated around a bit over the past few years, appearing on the Disney+ show Daredevil: Born Again as a villainous henchman, and starring in the last Downton Abbey movie. Maybe!<\/p>\n

Anthony Boyle<\/p>\n

\"BoyleBoyle seems on the verge of a major breakout (Getty)<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old Irish actor leads Netflix\u2019s House of Guinness, which was created by screenwriter Steven Knight, the very same man who is scripting the new James Bond. So\u2026 there\u2019s a connection there. He also has that slightly cryptic and haunted look that would fit 007, and seems on the verge of a major breakout \u2013 his new film, the coming-of-ager I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, earned rave reviews at this year\u2019s Cannes, and he was one of the stars of Apple TV\u2019s mini-series Masters of the Air in 2024, which was a bit of a hotbed of up-and-coming thesps, from Austin Butler to Barry Keoghan to \u2013 ooh, look here \u2013 Callum Turner.<\/p>\n

Callum Turner<\/p>\n

\"TurnerTurner has plenty of celebrity noise around him (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

OK, I know I threw the 36-year-old Turner in with the far-too-famous-for-this names at the top of this article, but I\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t think there was still a chance he could be involved. Turner isn\u2019t quite at the heights of professional success where he\u2019d turn down the chance to be Bond (there are shades of Daniel Craig\u2019s pre-Bond career in that he\u2019s buzzy but not yet a household name), and certainly looks the part. But chances are there\u2019s just a bit too much celebrity noise around him at the moment \u2013 mainly courtesy of his high-profile recent wedding to Dua Lipa \u2013 that it might turn off Villeneuve. Still, I\u2019m putting him here just in case.<\/p>\n

Cosmo Jarvis<\/p>\n

\"JarvisJarvis could convincingly break every one of the men in this list in two (Getty)<\/p>\n

So remember that Variety news item about Tom Francis that we mentioned earlier? Buried in there was mention of the, um, \u201cgruff heartthrob\u201d Cosmo Jarvis, the 36-year-old American-born (gasp!) but UK-raised star of Sh\u014dgun. But (twist!) his reps told the industry paper that he is \u201cnot in contention\u201d for the role. But you would say that, wouldn\u2019t you? Jarvis is probably the most visually distinct realistic contender here, being that he could convincingly break every one of the men in this list in two. And he\u2019s also a very good actor, having stolen scenes in the Florence Pugh star-making movie Lady Macbeth (2016) and in last year\u2019s Alex Garland-directed combat film Warfare. I wouldn\u2019t count him out, no matter what his team says.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Galitzine<\/p>\n

\"GalitzineGalitzine is an in-house fave (Getty)<\/p>\n

Potentially also too pretty, but the 31-year-old Brit has been conspicuously absent from much of the Bond rumour mill, which is a bit strange, isn\u2019t it? Working in his favour is that he\u2019s incredibly tight with Bond makers Amazon\/MGM, having worked with them on basically his entire career so far \u2013 in 2021\u2019s Cinderella, 2023\u2019s Bottoms and Red, White & Royal Blue, last year\u2019s Anne Hathaway romance The Idea of You, and this year\u2019s The Sheep Detectives and Masters of the Universe. He\u2019s an in-house fave, so it would be very surprising if he wasn\u2019t at least given the chance to screen test.<\/p>\n

Jack Lowden<\/p>\n

\"Lowden\u2019sLowden\u2019s success in his \u2018Slow Horses\u2019 role may count against him (Getty)<\/p>\n

Henry Cavill, if you remember, auditioned for James Bond in 2004 alongside Daniel Craig, then proceeded to dance around the industry for years without getting a real breakout role until 2013\u2019s Superman movie Man of Steel. I bring up Cavill because Jack Lowden, the 36-year-old Scot who is also known as Mr Saoirse Ronan, has a strong whiff of the Cavills about him. He\u2019s been mentioned as a possible Bond for a while, and could theoretically work in the part, and has seemed perpetually on the cusp of stardom for much of his career. His role as a fledgling MI5 agent on Apple TV\u2019s espionage drama Slow Horses could spoil his chances, though \u2013 there, he\u2019s meant to be a bit of a ropey spy who\u2019s always getting himself into ridiculous situations, so taking him seriously might be a struggle.<\/p>\n

Noah Jupe<\/p>\n

\"TooToo much, too young for Jupe? (Getty)<\/p>\n

At 21 years old, Noah Jupe \u2013 who you might know from A Quiet Place, Hamnet and this year\u2019s Romeo & Juliet in the West End \u2013 is potentially just way too young for this. However, one of the many often contradictory rumours circling about Villeneuve\u2019s Bond is that it will take place either at the very beginning of 007\u2019s espionage career, or even in spy school itself. And Amazon will want someone who could more or less grow into the role. Jupe is also a bit of a recent favourite of casting director Nina Gold, who is leading the Bond auditions and has cast Jupe in three movies in the past two years (Hamnet, where he played the stage thesp playing Shakespeare\u2019s son, and the forthcoming The Death of Robin Hood and & Sons). <\/p>\n

Harry Lawtey<\/p>\n

\"LawteyLawtey has a rogue-ish, debonair charisma (Getty)<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t put an enormous amount of stock in the Nina Gold connection, if I\u2019m being totally honest, seeing as she basically casts everything big and British. But Gold did cast the 29-year-old Industry star in Sam Mendes\u2019s forthcoming Beatles biopics (he plays the band\u2019s original bass player Stuart Sutcliffe) and he has a rogue-ish, debonair charisma that could work for 007. I can\u2019t see him not auditioning at the very least.<\/p>\n

Leo Woodall<\/p>\n

\"MuscularMuscular sensitivity is a Woodall trait (Getty)<\/p>\n

The unstoppable rise of One Day\u2019s Leo Woodall remains one of the great mysteries of our time \u2013 why was he so wooden in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy?? \u2013 but you could argue that his recent run of movies has been one long audition for 007. The 29-year-old showed off lots of muscular sensitivity in the well-reviewed heist movie Tuner recently, and led Apple TV\u2019s espionage thriller Prime Target to strong reviews last year, too. Coming up is the Sydney Sweeney period comedy The Custom of the Country, which was cast by\u2026 ooh look, Nina Gold! <\/p>\n

Patrick Gibson<\/p>\n

\"GibsonGibson as James Bond in \u2018007 First Light\u2019 (IO Interactive)<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t it be funny if the new James Bond was hiding in plain sight this whole time? The 31-year-old Irish actor \u2013 who appeared on Netflix\u2019s The OA and played a young Michael C Hall on the prequel series Dexter: Original Sin \u2013 currently lends his likeness and voice to the video game 007 First Light, so is au fait with the ins and outs of the character and the Bond audition room. Interestingly, Gibson himself has never explicitly said whether or not he\u2019s in the mix for the IRL Bond. Asked by Radio Times whether he agreed with comments made by his First Light co-star Lennie James that he\u2019d be perfect for the films, Gibson merely replied: \u201cBig love to Lennie for that \u2026 That was just really, very kind of him to say that.\u201d Way to dodge the question, Paddy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-691737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}