Aaron Taylor-Johnson Breaks Silence on James Bond Casting Rumor

Aaron Taylor-Johnson has delivered a short, blunt response to the rumors that he is ready to sign-on-the-line as the new James Bond. After days of speculation, the actor addressed the latest churning of the rumor mill while speaking with Rolling Stone.

Although it is not too long ago that Barbara Broccoli candidly spoke about the role of Bond not being ready to cast for a while yet, that didn’t stop the internet going into meltdown this week, as it was “revealed” that the Kraven the Hunter star was not only the favorite to succeed Daniel Craig as the iconic super-spy, but the deal was practically done. However, when asked about the reports, Taylor-Johnson said:

“I can only really talk about the things I’m going to show and tell. So, The Fall Guy, Nosferatu, Kraven the Hunter. I don’t feel like I need to have a future drawn out for me. I feel like, whatever’s drawn out for me, I can f**ing do better.”

The actor has a tough task ahead of him this year, when he stars in Sony’s latest Spider-Man Universe movie, Kraven the Hunter. Following the dismal performance of Madame Web – both in critical and commercial terms – there is a lot riding on the next movie in the franchise. The first trailer for the R-rated comic book movie was released earlier this year, and the film arrives in the summer.

Is Aaron Taylor-Johnson the New James Bond?

The question of who will be the next actor to have his Martini’s shaken but not stirred has been going around social media since the departure of Daniel Craig in 2021’s No Time to Die. However, it seems that long-time franchise producer Barbara Broccoli is in any rush to fill Craig’s highly-polished shoes.

Only last month, while appearing at the BFI’s Fellowship event, Broccoli shut down the idea that a new Bond announcement was imminent. She said:

Although things can change very quickly in Hollywood, the idea that things could have moved so quickly that Taylor-Johnson could be signing onto the franchise less than a month after those comments is a little hard to believe. However, stranger things have happened, and in the end, the new James Bond has to emerge from the pack at some point.

When previously addressing the challenges faced with changing the man behind the spy with each new actor, Broccoli said of the process:

“I go back to GoldenEye when everyone was saying, ‘The cold war is over, the wall is over, Bond is dead, no need for Bond, the whole world’s at peace and now there’s no villains’ – and boy was that wrong! [With Craig, we] wanted to focus on what a 21st-century hero would look like. Daniel gave us the ability to mine the emotional life of the character … and also the world was ready for it. I think these movies reflect the time they are in, and there’s a big, big road ahead reinventing it for the next chapter and we haven’t even begun with that.”

While Taylor-Johnson is certainly one of the frontrunners for the role, it seems that the deal is not quite done and dusted just yet. This means that there is still time for other fan-favorite casting ideas to gain traction, with Henry Cavill, Regé-Jean Page, and more still constantly the subject of speculation when it comes to who will next take on one of the longest running roles in movie history.

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