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Why The Next James Bond In The Next 007 Film Could Be ... Daniel Craig

This article is more than 8 years old.

In September 2012, Daniel Craig signed a two-film contract extension past what would be his third outing as James Bond, the $1 billion-grossing Skyfall. So with all of the talk about who some random betting parlor says the next James Bond will be, I am willing to start a rumor that the next Bond in the next 007 film will be none other than Daniel Craig. I mean, it's no guarantee, but I'd be willing to bet money on the 47-year-old English actor. Sure, he is a natural blonde, not even six feet tall, and a bit gruffer than the likes of Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan. Plus his would-be franchise starters The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Cowboys and Aliens fizzled here and abroad in 2011. But he is relatively well qualified to play James Bond in what will be the 25th Bond film thanks to a filmography that includes such films as Casino RoyaleQuantum of SolaceSkyfallSpectre, and A Kid In King Arthur's Court. Again, I don't want to start rumors or gossip, but I am pretty confident in my sources to proclaim that Daniel Craig will be the next 007 actor in the next James Bond film. Well, the next one and the next after that, anyway.

Okay, the next 007 film, Spectre, opens on October 26 in the U.K. and November 6 in America. The last three Daniel Craig movies have all been monster hits here and abroad, shooting the 007 franchise to record domestic and box office heights. Even if Spectre outright flops, which is a notion I can't even comprehend at this juncture, there is still a pretty good chance that EON Productions and Sony (or whoever has the distribution rights at the given time) will want Craig to finish out his contract. Heck, the Broccolis didn't fire Timothy Dalton after License to Kill outright tanked in 1989. He just gave up waiting for them to get their ducks in a row and perennial favorite pick Pierce Brosnan finally got the role.

Yes, they did sack Brosnan even after Die Another Day received strong initial reviews and earned record-level box office here ($160m) and worldwide ($431m) in 2002. So yeah, I guess Sony could (again) pull a Die Another Day/Spider-Man 3 where they reboot the series after record-high box office for a would-be darker/grittier reboot, but that's a big "if" predicated on poor review, disappointing box office, and the feeling that the Craig reign has run its course. But let's be honest, that's probably not going to happen. The star of the 25th James Bond film will almost certainly be Clive Owen Daniel Craig.

But who will follow in his footsteps, you ask?  Well, here's the thing. At best, we'll be getting Craig's fifth Bond movie in 2017. Maybe it'll be 2018, heck maybe they will take another four-year wait and make it 2019. And maybe, just maybe, Eon and Craig will decide to keep going after that. Maybe Craig will want to be the guy who made more 007 movies than Roger Moore or Sean Connery. Maybe he will be able to do enough "not Bond" projects in between each 007 installment that he won't mind donning the tuxedo for another decade, a la Hugh Jackman's 15 year+ reign as Wolverine in 20th Century Fox's X-Men films. We don't know when Daniel Craig will actually hang up the PPK and the various Q-provided murder toys. Until he retires, all of this speculation is meaningless.

There is a good chance that pretty much all of the actors you're now hearing about as being "rumored" for Bond (Hugh Jackman, Idris Elba, Scott Mendelson, Michael Fassbender) will be too old for the part or otherwise indisposed when the time comes. Heck, today's pick of the week, Damien Lewis, is already 44-years old. Just like the presidential election each time out, the person you think is going to get the respective party nomination often isn't the person you think is going to get he nomination by the time the actual voting occurs. And pretty much all the names you're hearing about right now will likely be rendered moot in a few years by a new batch of vaguely recognizable white British dudes. The names we'll be passing back and forth in 2017 or 2018 may well be a whole different batch of people than the ones we're discussing today. All of this speculation is moot because at the moment there is already an actor playing James Bond and he is pretty good at it.

Now good-natured speculation and fan casting is relatively harmless. But it's going to be a few years at best, maybe close to a decade at worst, before the powers that be have to seriously consider who the next onscreen 007 will be. It is likely over the course of that period that a whole new list of probable/possible names will crop up, while others will fall by the wayside for one reason or another. But to treat each arbitrary comment about a vaguely possible actor as news, or to treat outright speculation as "this actor may be the next 007" type news, well, I get that's what we do now. But can we at least wait until Daniel Craig finishes up his pretty terrific run as James Bond before we all start madly speculating about who will take over for him?  The answer to that question today is likely to be very different than the answer when he actually walks away from the franchise. In the meantime, we don't need to speculate about the next actor to play James Bond, because we've already got one who's on an all-time high.

 

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