{"id":811774,"date":"2026-10-23T21:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T21:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/811774\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T21:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T21:40:15","slug":"i-expect-you-to-cry-what-the-james-bond-actors-may-face-at-the-final-audition-james-bond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/811774\/","title":{"rendered":"I expect you to cry: what the James Bond actors may face at the final audition | James Bond"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend, the identity of the next James Bond<\/a> is finally expected to be known \u2013 to the insiders, at least. According to reports, a number of youngish British actors \u2013 definitely three, possibly five \u2013 will have their final screen tests.<\/p>\n

To say it has been a long time coming is an understatement. It is five years since Daniel Craig was killed in a hail of missiles at the end of No Time to Die, and in that time \u2013 even long before it \u2013 a swarm of actors have been tipped to replace him, only to age out of the role due to a combination of indecisiveness and cutthroat backstage corporate shenanigans. Whoever is declared to be 007 will be joining the franchise after what is likely to be the longest fallow period in the franchise\u2019s 64-year history.<\/p>\n

\"WhoWho will be the next James Bond? – The Latest<\/p>\n

As such, this is kind of a big weekend. Let\u2019s run through what we know so far.<\/p>\n

The candidates<\/p>\n

If three actors are to screen test for Bond this weekend, then they are Callum Turner, Josh O\u2019Connor and Jack Lowden. If there are more \u2013 some outlets state that one other actor might be participating, others two \u2013 then they won\u2019t include Jack O\u2019Connell or Jacob Elordi<\/a>, who are both out of the race for one reason or another.<\/p>\n

The identity of the other actors are not yet known. Let\u2019s take an uneducated guess and assume that one of them is a Beatle<\/a> (the best fit is Harris Dickinson) and another one is more famous but less suitable (like Tom Cruise).<\/p>\n

I spy \u2026 Jack Lowden at the Golden Globe awards, 2025. Photograph: Matt Baron\/BEI\/REX\/ShutterstockThe screen test<\/p>\n

Outlets are reporting that the screen test will encompass three main elements: stunts, camera presence and dialogue. These are all equally important for a modern Bond. Remove stunts from the equation and your film will be boring. Remove camera presence and you\u2019re likely to end up with a George Lazenby type, who has the potential to fluff what would otherwise be an all-timer. Remove dialogue and you\u2019re left with Quantum of Solace, and God knows we don\u2019t need another one of those.<\/p>\n

The chances<\/p>\n

You could argue that Jack Lowden is the frontrunner, if only because the first scene of the first episode of Slow Horses<\/a> was a pretty good Bond audition in itself. It was, you\u2019ll remember, a race against time sprint through an airport and train station, on foot and in a car, complete with hand-to-hand combat and gun play. And it was very good indeed. Working against him is the sense that he\u2019s a bit too much of a teddy bear for a sociopath like Bond. Plus the fact that he has spent every subsequent scene of Slow Horses doing a pretty good Simon Pegg impression.<\/p>\n

Callum Turner would seem to make a sexier Bond, partly because he was able to conjure chemistry from the very silly sex purge movie One Night Only<\/a>, and partly because he\u2019s married to Dua Lipa, who would almost certainly get the role of Bond Girl Who Dies First if he were cast.<\/p>\n

Looks good \u2026 Josh O\u2019Connor at the premiere of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Los Angeles, 2025. Photograph: Image Press Agency\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

I still think Josh O\u2019Connor would be the best fit, though. He looks good in a tux, as anyone who has seen The Crown will testify. He is very good at convincingly delivering absolute nonsense, as anyone who has seen Disclosure Day<\/a> will testify. However, his best-known stunt work must be the long scene in The Mastermind<\/a> in which he slowly climbs up and down a ladder several times in a row.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s missing?<\/p>\n

Now, this is all well and good for a traditional Bond film. But we\u2019re talking about an Amazon Bond film, directed by Denis Villeneuve<\/a>. This means that more will be asked of whoever gets the role, and the screen tests are the perfect way to see if they can pull it off.<\/p>\n

For example, which of the finalists will best be able to carry their voice in such a way that it isn\u2019t drowned out by all the seat-rumbling full-volume honking noises that Villeneuve will almost certainly use instead of a traditional soundtrack? Which of the actors will most convincingly be able to interact with a side character created with the express purpose of carrying their own spin-off series, to better sustain cross-media IP synergy? Which of them will least overtly die on the inside during the scene in which an Amazon drone delivers them a gun? That is the stuff that will really make or break James Bond going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend, the identity of the next James Bond is finally expected to be known \u2013 to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-811774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811774","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=811774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}