Ben Whishaw played James Bond’s technology and weapons expert Q in three 007 movies with Daniel Craig, joining the franchise on a high note in 2012’s acclaimed “Skyfall” and also appearing in 2015’s “Spectre” and 2021’s “No Time to Die.” The latter title marked Craig’s last Bond movie, which has Whishaw predicting that his time as Q is also over.
“I don’t think I’m going to be in the next one,” Whishaw recently told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg about his future in the James Bond film franchise. “I think they’re going to start all over again, and with a new cast, a completely new cast. I think that’s my hunch, but I don’t know. I have no idea.”
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“I think it might need a new lease of life and a whole new group of people,” he added. “But if they asked me, I would do it, of course.”
Not much is known about the future of the Bond franchise. Franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson were not in a rush after the release of “No Time to Die” to immediately replace Craig and get a new 007 film off the ground. The next Bond actor has yet to be announced. Given that Craig’s iteration of 007 died in “No Time to Die,” it might not make sense for his co-stars like Whishaw and Naomie Harris (Moneypenny) to return as well.
The Sun reported in March that Aaron Taylor-Johnson had officially gotten the offer to replace Craig as the next James Bond, but sources close to the actor downplayed the report at the time and said he had not been cast as Bond.
“I can only really talk about the things I’m going to show and tell,” Taylor-Johnson said when Rolling Stone UK asked about Bond around the same time. “I don’t feel like I need to have a future drawn out for me. I feel like: whatever’s drawn out for me, I can fuckin’ do better.”
One person who is in support of Taylor-Johnson’s casting is Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, who acted with Taylor-Johnson on the 2009 film “The Greatest.”
“I think the man has the chops and the talent and the charisma to play Bond, very much so,” Brosnan said of Taylor-Johnson during an appearance on RTE Radio 1’s “The Ray D’Arcy Show.” “Yes, I read the news about his possibilities of being a Bond, so I would definitely tip my hat to the fellow.”
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