James Bond Producers Speak Out on Finding the Next 007

The James Bond movie franchise is entering a whole new era right now. The titular role of James Bond needs to be recast after the departure of Daniel Craig; meanwhile, Amazon's acquisition of MGM has put the Bond franchise in new hands for the first time in decades. With all that on the table, there are a lot questions hanging over how the next phase of the 007 movies are getting shaped. 

In a new interview with EON productions heads and Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the subject of what comes next for the franchise was thoroughly discussed – including the looming question of how to recast James Bond. According to Barbara Broccoli, the biggest issue is finding a new Bond who can actually sustain the franchise through four to six new films – possibly across a decade (or more) of time: 

"When you change the actor you have to reimagine the direction the film's gonna go in. When you hire an actor, you're hoping you're going to spend a decade at least with them and make four or five or six films with them. So you have to think through, 'what is the trajectory? What is that actor going to bring? How are you going to move the series into another direction?'" Broccoli told Empire, adding that the casting process is not as easy as the endless fancast picks online make it seem: 

"It's not just flicking through Spotlight and saying, 'Oh, there's a guy who's 6'1,'" Broccoli continued. "We're going to take our time. We want to get a sense of where we want to go with the series and we want to do that before we bring anybody else on. We'll start the process probably with [writers] Rob [Wade] and Neil [Purvis] and we'll see where we go!"

That sentiment echoes the line that Broccoli, in particular, has been maintaining since Craig's final film, No Time to Die, was released last year. While fans want to see Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston, or Henry Cavill become the next bond, it's clear that the producers want a new, younger, take on Bond that can last for awhile – and that there are no decisions yet on who that may be: 

"Nobody's in the running," Broccoli revealed in a previous interview. "We're working out where to go with him, we're talking that through. There isn't a script and we can't come up with one until we decide how we're going to approach the next film because, really, it's a reinvention of Bond. We're reinventing who he is and that takes time. I'd say that filming is at least two years away."

No Time to Die is now streaming on Prime Video.