Deadline reports at least four test offers have gone out, and there is no date yet for a final decision.
Final auditions for the next James Bond could begin as early as Friday and run through the following week, Deadline reported. Amazon MGM Studios, which now controls the franchise, is setting the final tests, and the outlet says at least four test offers have been given out.
The names are unconfirmed, but insiders told Deadline that three of the four expected to test are Jack Lowden, the Slow Horses actor, Callum Turner, the Masters of the Air star, and Josh O'Connor, best known for playing Prince Charles in The Crown. Variety also reported that Turner and Lowden appear to be in the mix, and said Lowden has recently moved to the front of the rumours.
Amazon MGM Studios has neither confirmed nor denied the reports. In April, Courtenay Valenti, the company's head of film, told fans how the studio was approaching the decision:
"It is the dream of a lifetime for all of us to bring audiences this next chapter, and it's a responsibility we don't take lightly."
Saoirse Ronan, Lowden's wife, said that it is "not really a subject that's coming up in our house." Turner was asked about the rumours at the Berlin Film Festival in February, while promoting Rosebush Pruning. "It's very early for that question," he said, and he would not comment on it.
Denis Villeneuve is set to direct the film, and Steven Knight is writing the script. Knight told Zoe Ball on Greatest Hits Radio in September that the first draft was finished. "I'm absolutely loving doing it," he said. Villeneuve, who has spent the better part of a decade on the Dune films, told Empire: "I thought, 'When it's done, I need a very powerful rocket to pull me away from Arrakis.' When I was asked to do the next Bond, I said: 'OK, this is what I need.'" The film is reportedly due for release in 2028.
The last full Bond screen test was more than 20 years ago. Superman actor Henry Cavill was reported to be a finalist then, and in 2022 he told the Happy Sad Confused podcast: "They told me I was close."
Deadline reports that there is no timeline for a final decision, though most believe it will come by end of the year. In August, producer Amy Pascal told Deadline that "end of the year is a good bet" for news on who will play Bond.
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