The future of James Bond

Well, I thought Craig did a super job as Bond and think the more serious side works better than the jokey side. The only downside was I never could see Crag's attempts at chemistry with female co-stars. Some seem to get it, but I thought it looked all wooden. He certainly got the action-man part right. I suspect we will see a complete relaunch of the Bond movies next. Back to square 1 as it might be said. Probably with a young actor who can stay on and turn out 6 to 7 films.

"James Bond will return"

it remains to be seen how they write themselves out of the corner they've painted themselves into, but the movie series is called "James Bond", they're not going to pull a Taggart.

There's no corner, they'll just do a reboot.

Every single James Bond film, apart from the Daniel Craig era, has been a reboot essentially. There's little to no continuation from film to film, no matter who was playing Bond before. So the next one will just be situation normal and introduce a new actor in the role and the cycle will begin again.

Only Craig's Bond approached anything like a series of connected story, for better or for worse.

She's several years older than Daniel Craig. Never mind the 'female route'.

Give it to Mark Strong. Everybody is falling over themselves to give it to somebody "different" from the mannequin's of the past. What better way to break the mould than give it to a bald man. Bald lives matter too.

It's going to be someone in their early-to-mid-thirties. They'll need someone who can play the character for 4-5 movies, so that rules out the commonly-named contenders (Idris Elba, Tom Hardy).

I think it'll also be someone who is somewhat known but not necessarily super famous, e.g. I think Henry Cavill's age and the fact he is Superman rules him out.

Weirdly enough, I think the BBC show The Capture has given us two potential Bonds: Callum Turner and Paapa Essiedu. I also think Nicholas Hoult would have a good chance since he made it to the final two of The Batman's casting and the final three for Goose in Top Gun Maverick.

Assuming they want someone early 30s I’d say Hoult would be a good shout, not too high profile but has enough behind him. If they were looking to do 3/4 movies over 12/13 years he’d still be mid 40s finishing up

absolutely not, he's way too short and not enough screen presence for the role.

Cruise has screen presence, Tom Holland definitely does not. He's a boy and great as Spider-man but definitely not bond. Bond is a man.

I wouldn't cast Tom Cruise as Bond either btw.

The problem with a Bond in his 20s is that Craig hit a lot of the marks of a modern young Bond anyway. Kingsman basically did it as well.

They have 2 choices; gender bend or do a seasoned Bond in a different era akin to the Mission Impossible type films. The latter is much more appealing. Henry Cavill would tick every box and would larkin back to what the old films were about while appealing to all.

Anyone else been watching the new series of The Crown? Timothy Dalton plays Group Captain Peter Townsend in it and seeing him in officer's uniform has me wishing I had Wilson or Brocolli's ear to pitch the idea of bringing him back for the next Bond movie...

Logan showed how well the aged hero trope can work and there's so much opportunity for Dalton's Bond to be brought into the modern day: his role in assisting Russian officers to "defect" during the cold war or enlisting the help of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan in The Living Daylights could both provide great jumping off points for his being dragged out of retirement for "one last job". The screenplay practically writes itself!

In many ways the character is a relic of the cold war so why not lean into that and let Bond be the septuagenarian who has to rely on his wits, spycraft and marksmanship rather than his ability to brawl?

Timothy Dalton has aged quite well I must say. Loved him in Penny Dreadful.

Always had a soft spot for his Bond movies.