James Bond: Josh O’Connor Nears the New 007 Role, Robert Pattinson Makes a Surprise Appearance

These are decisive hours, these moments we are living through, for the choice of the actor who will become the seventh James Bond on the big screen, succeeding Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig in the role of the world’s most famous secret agent in the 26th film of the 007 series, directed by Denis Villeneuve.
In recent days, the race for the role of 007 seemed to be a three-way contest among Josh O’Connor, Callum Turner and Jack Lowden (the least well known of the three, unless you are a viewer of Slow Horses, and thus you know well who we are talking about), and at the start of the week more and more rumors circulated that Turner (who you may also know as the husband of Dua Lipa) was on the cusp of achieving the goal. Yesterday, to everyone’s surprise, several UK newspapers declared the odds in favor of Josh O’Connor, aided by some remarks that the actor of The Chimera and of Disclosure Day would have let slip in a London pub after a final performance of Golden Boy, the stage production in which he was currently involved.
To complicate matters, however, news from the United States emerged that, a few weeks ago at the Bond auditions, in front of Villeneuve and the producers, Robert Pattinson had also shown up, as had Nicholas Hoult.
By instinct, one would say that Pattinson and Hoult are now water under the bridge, even if I could easily be contradicted at any moment.
What one might infer is that the possible choice of O’Connor — one who is not only a capable actor highly appreciated for his looks, but also someone who blends beauty and charisma with a certain gentleness and even a kind of fascinating fragility — would seem to be a Bond perfectly aligned with the times, and also with the direction that the latest No Time to Die and the public debate it sparked had given to this immortal character.