Favourite actor for James Bond revealed but there’s still ‘at least 2 years’ to wait-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

The nation (or at least, the internet) has spoken, revealing the most popular candidate to play James Bond (Picture: Getty)

There’s a clear favourite actor that fans would most like to see star as James Bond, taking over from Daniel Craig as the suave spy – and it’s Henry Cavill, according to a new study.

However, industry experts reckon it’s unlikely we’ll be watching a new 007 movie before the end of 2026 ‘at the earliest’.

Craig, 56, finished his time as the suave MI6 spy with a flourish in 2021’s No Time to Die, his fifth film as Bond, and since then there has been constant fascination over who could step into his shoes.

Superman star Cavill, 41, most recently won a whole new legion of fans with his portrayal of Geralt of Rivia in Netflix fantasy show The Witcher, while also leading the cast of 2024 action movies Argylle and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

Coincidentally, he was also Bond producers’ second choice to play 007 last time around, eventually losing out to Craig as he was deemed too young for the role at just 22 in 2005.

There’s been much online support for the star in the role in the intervening years, although his odds with bookies have dropped off a little in favour of newer talent like Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey and fellow Netflix lead actor Theo James.

Daniel Craig stepped down from playing 007 after five films in 2021 (Picture: Danjaq/Eon Productions/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)

Henry Cavill is the actor most people would like to see replace him, almost 20 years after he came second in the race to Craig last time (Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage)

However, according to data from Betway Casino, the most likely candidate to pick up Craig’s licence to kill as Bond – due to his online popularity – is still Cavill.

The bookmakers ‘analysed the number of Google searches, the number of articles, article engagement and Reddit mentions’ of 31 potential Bond actors with the Justice League actor coming out on top.

Betway crowned Cavill ‘the internet’s favourite person to play the next Bond’ thanks to 64,800 searches in the past year alone, way ahead of anyone else who may be thought to be in contention.

Its research also claimed that Cavill has ‘the most Reddit mentions discussing the likelihood of him playing the role, at 120 overall from the threads analysed’. 

The Superman star has the most searches of anyone in relation to Bond in the past year (Picture: Cindy Ord/WireImage)

Meanwhile, in perhaps unsurprising news, the star firmly ensconced as the bookies’ favourite, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, comes in second place.

Taylor-Johnson, 34, has the highest number of articles mentioning him playing 007 of all, clocking it at 1,606.

He also has the highest engagement rate for these articles, with 138,951 instances of engagement, far ahead of Cavill’s 56,937. 

The Fall Guy actor was claimed to have been cast in the role earlier this year after a prior ‘secret audition’, before those reports were rubbished, but he’s remained tight-lipped over the speculation himself.

However, Coral saw fit to suspend betting on the next James Bond this month, following ‘strong interest’ in Taylor-Johnson.

He fits in with producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson’s interest too in casting a younger actor who can commit to multiple films and 10-15 years in the role.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the bookies’ consistent frontrunner, is second in the race according to new data (Picture: Pablo Cuadra/WireImage)

Idris Elba, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy round off the top five as the internet’s top picks for the new 007, according to Betway.

Luther star Elba, 51, has seen a lot of love from Reddit as well with a ‘significant’ 93 mentions where users discuss the likelihood of the actor playing Bond, while Hardy – another previous strong candidate is in fourth with the second-highest number of Google searches (2,400).

Other 007 possibles according to the data included Theo James at number six, a more recent fancy for Bond betters, followed by Jamie Dornan, Tom Hiddleston and James Norton.

Dev Patel, fresh off the chatter around his directorial debut Monkey Man, rounds off the top 10.

Alongside the still rampant speculation over casting though – among other aspects of the franchise, like the next Bond theme song – fans are likely to be in for a pretty lengthy wait for the next movie.

Fans would still love to see Idris Elba as 007 too, despite the actor ruling himself out already (Picture: Studiocanal/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)

Aside from casting, we could see a lengthy wait for the next film, as it was six years between Timothy Dalton’s final Bond film and Pierce Brosnan debuting in GoldenEye (pictured, with Sean Bean) (Picture: Keith Hamshere/Getty Images)

In fact, it could reach as far as almost four years into the future, making it 2028 before we finally see the next film in the franchise.

‘Late 2026, at the ­earliest. Maybe 2027. Perhaps even 2028,’ according to a senior talent representative’s best guess, as reported by The Telegraph.

The publication’s article also saw another expert, Professor James Chapman of the University of Leicester, and author of Licence To Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films, point out that fans shouldn’t worry ‘unduly’ if that is the case.

After all, the gap between Timothy Dalton’s final Bond film Licence to Kill in 1989 and Pierce Brosnan’s debut in 1995’s GoldenEye was six years, four months and 14 days.

Given that we’re currently on two years, 10 months and 27 days, we may still have quite a long wait ahead.

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