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Gary Oldman may not have any obvious connection to the James Bond franchise but that hasn’t stopped him from declaring that the next super-spy has been selected.
The Academy Award winner joined the 007 conversation this week after months of hotly contested speculation, stating that the hunt was over and that his hopes are on his Slow Horses co-star Jack Lowden to step into the iconic tux.
“It’s been rumoured that [Lowden] is on the shortlist,” Oldman said in an interview with Canada’s The Morning Show on Monday. “We’re going to find out pretty soon, aren’t we? Because they have picked him. They have made their choice but they have not announced it yet. So my fingers are crossed for Jack.”
It remains unclear where Oldman attained this information and how accurate his claims are. The actor has never starred in a Bond film and is not otherwise explicitly involved in the franchise’s production.
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His support for Lowden, on the other hand, is unsurprising given their time spent together on Apple TV’s spy thriller Slow Horses. In the show, whose sixth season starts on September 16, Oldman plays the lead Jackson Lamb, while Lowden is his mentee River Cartwright. A seventh season has also already been confirmed. However, Lowden’s involvement could come under question if he is eventually cast as Bond.
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Rumours around the next 007 have been swirling since Daniel Craig sipped his final shaken martini in No Time to Die in 2021. The chatter has ramped up over the past few months, as whispers of auditions spread around Tinseltown.
Some of the alleged frontrunners so far include Callum Turner, Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Jack Barton, Australia’s Jacob Elordi and – Oldman’s pick – Lowden. These actors have reportedly already auditioned for the coveted role, though details around the process remain murky and nothing has been confirmed. Other names have also been floated, such as Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Tom Francis and Louis Partridge.
Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve is on board to direct the next Bond film, which will be distributed by Amazon MGM after it secured ownership of the franchise from the Broccoli family in February 2025.
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If Lowden does step into the legendary role, it could become a family affair. The Scottish actor’s wife, Irish-American star Saoirse Ronan, told the film magazine Empire last month that she would enjoy playing a Bond villain.
“I want to go dark,” the Little Women actor told the publication. “I said that I wanted to be a Bond villain and I’m dead serious … I think it would be really interesting having a young female villain. Especially for girls and women, to see someone who can just take all that pent-up anger and direct it somewhere, there’s something interesting in that dramatically. So I would love to do more of that.”
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Nell Geraets is a Culture reporter at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement