Everything That’s Been Said So Far About The Long-Awaited Next James Bond Movie

Six decades after 007’s debut on the silver screen, James Bond is still the film franchise everyone’s talking about right now.

Long before Daniel Craig took his final bow as James Bond in 2021’s No Time To Die, rumours had already started to swirl about exactly which actor would don the tux and pick up the Martini glass to become the world’s most famous secret agent next.

Now, it seems almost every day there are new reports in the headlines about who the new 007 will be.

As the rumours continue to pile up, we’re breaking down everything we know about the next film in the iconic series, and separating the fact from the gossip…

In the summer of 2025, it was announced that filmmaker Denis Villeneuve will take the helm of the next instalment in the Bond franchise.

The director knows a thing or two about propelling a franchise to critical and box-office success, having overseen the hugely popular Dune trilogy.

“Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007,” the Oscar nominee said when announced as the man behind Bond 26.

“I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since Dr. No with Sean Connery. I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory.”

He added: “I intend to honour the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come. This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honour.”

Since then, the Canadian director has stayed pretty quiet about the project, although recently at a benefit for the Los Angeles County Museum Of Art (LACMA) he told Variety: “I would just say that I’m having a great time.”

“It’s in the process. In the process,” he later teased to GQ. “I am pushing the gas.”

Aside from the Dune franchise, which he co-wrote and directed, the filmmaker also directed projects like Blade Runner 2049, Arrival and Prisoners.

The 26th Bond film will be written by Steven Knight, best known as the creator of shows like Peaky Blinders, House Of Guinness and A Thousand Blows. He has also penned movies including Burnt, Spencer, Locke and The Girl In The Spider’s Web.
“It’s fantastic to be invited to do it – I can’t wait to get started,” he revealed during an appearance on the BBC Five Live Breakfast show last year.

He added: “I’m hoping that, being a Bond fan for so many years, it will be imbued into me and I will be able to produce something that’s the same but different, and better, stronger and bolder.”

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Show in September, he also shared that writing a Bond film has always been on his “bucket list” and that he felt like he was “doing my duty for King and country” by joining the franchise.

For the time being, the screenwriter has insisted he isn’t too concerned about who will be cast as Bond because he is planning to “write the character, not the actor”.

“The thing with Bond is it’s its own universe and franchise. So there are certain rules,” he claimed.

“Obviously you have to move it along, but I love where it sits. I love that it’s British. I love that it’s not DC or Marvel… So I feel a responsibility to the text.”

Official plot details for Bond 26 are currently undisclosed – with details being kept tightly under wraps.

However, considering the way Daniel Craig exited the role at the end of No Time To Die, it’s fair to say that the upcoming film will reboot the entire franchise. That means a new M, a new Q and new Moneypenny alongside the shiny brand new Bond .

Ben Whishaw who played Q in three Daniel Craig Bond films revealed earlier this month he will not return as Head of Q branch.

“The world has changed so much since the last Bond film so you have to find what is relevant about it,” he told The Sunday Times. “I think it needs to be reinvented completely. But it’s not for me to say.”

It has also not been announced if Steven Knight is adapting a novel from original Bond author Ian Fleming, or if the upcoming movie will be a completely original idea.

Nearly all of the Bond films from Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan’s tenures were based on original stories, peppered with characters from the author’s work.

It’s now been five years since Daniel Craig’s Bond was killed off at the end of No Time To Die, and it feels like almost every actor in Hollywood has been tipped to replace him since.

But what exactly are the team behind Bond 26 looking for?

In a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, former Bond producer Barbara Broccoli hinted that she and her colleagues wanted to cast an antagonist before Bond himself.

“We always sit down with our writers, and we start by thinking about ‘What is the world afraid of?’” said Barbara, who gave up control of the franchise to Amazon in 2025. “We start by thinking about, ‘Who’s the Bond villain?’ We try to focus on that as the sort of uber story, and then we want to also look at Bond’s emotional life, and what he’ll be facing personally that he hasn’t had to deal with before.”

Barbara added that they were looking for a young actor who could sign up for a multi-film contract and wanted a “long-term commitment.”

Current producer Amy Pascal gave Deadline a tiny update this summer about casting Bond.

“Daniel Craig is a hard act to follow. And it’s got to be something really different that is stirring and exciting and different,” she explained.

It seems like every day a new actor is reported to have been auditioned for 007, to the point it sometimes feels as though it’d be easier to list who hasn’t been rumoured.

One early rumour put Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a frontrunner for the role, with The Sun reporting as far back as 2022 that the role was his “should he wish to accept it”.

But, at the end of October, The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Jacob had not screentested, and was therefore out of the running.

Deadline and Variety reported in November that Robert Pattinson and Nicholas Hoult had also been involved in screen tests for the role, while The Gentlemen’s Theo James was said to have not been ruled out, either.

Besides that, there have been reports of a mystery actor the press has not named, with people theorising they could be either an unknown or a very famous star.

Speaking to GQ Hype, Jack Lowden called the speculation “flattering”, but stopped short of confirming or denying the rumours.

The Pride & Prejudice star said: “It’s nice to be mentioned – for any role – and I’m just not really going to add to the noise.”

When asked about the role over the summer, Callum Turner also had a lot of nothing to say about 007.

“There’s nothing for me to comment on, and I think it’s best just to not say anything” he told Esquire.

Josh O’Connor appears to have ruled himself out of the race for 007 already. Metro reports that when asked outside his recent London play, if he had landed the part of Bond, the former star of The Crown had responded: “No, no, no. We’ll see, but I doubt it.”

He added: “I’m doing something in January, but then yeah, I’m taking some time out.”

Similarly, Theo James already took himself out of the running by suggesting that, at 41, he’s now “too old” to begin an arc as 007.

Producer Amy Pascal told fans over the summer that they should expect a decision by the end of 2026.

“We are being really, really methodical,” she insisted.

Although unconfirmed, Deadline also said in October that a casting announcement “will come by end of the year”.