Cillian Murphy has been tipped by one of his co-stars in Oppenheimer to be the next James Bond.
Rumours about the identity of the next Bond have been rampant ever since Daniel Craig revealed back in 2019 that No Time To Die would be his final time playing the character.
And now, Clay Bunker, who appeared in Christopher Nolan’s recent opus alongside Murphy, thinks that the Irish actor could be the ideal candidate.
“He would fare beautifully,” he said (via The Sun). “It’s funny because Cillian is the nicest human but he has that dark side and there’s a darkness to Bond.”
Bunker continued: “We forget that sometimes Bond is like the character Fleming created – a pretty dark character. He just happens to be on the side that we call good. Cillian has that ability to tap into that.”
“We’ve seen that in something like Peaky Blinders, even in Batman when he is playing Scarecrow – the myriad of other films he’s done.”
In November last year, Bond producer Greg Wilson confirmed that they were not yet working on the next film at the time. “There will be another Bond someday, but we’re not actively developing it,” he said.
And with rumours flying around about who might play the next Bond, series producer Barbara Broccoli addressed the new phase of the story following the character’s death at the end of No Time To Die by saying: “It’s gonna take a while for us to get – you know, it’s a whole new reinvention. So it’ll take some time.”
It was recently revealed by director Matthew Vaughn (Argylle, Kick-Ass) that Henry Cavill was almost cast as Bond instead of Craig.
“When Henry was auditioning for Bond, I was at Pinewood, right? And Daniel was as well at the same time. I’d go off and meet with Daniel and [I’d] say what’s going on, and he said there’s this young guy, Henry Cavill I think they’re seeing as well [for the auditions],” Vaughn said.
“It got down to the last two for Bond… And I know that the director preferred your audition. But [producer] Barbara [Broccoli] preferred [Craig],” Vaughn told Cavill. “So, just so you know, and they decided you were too young.”
A poll conducted over the summer by William Hill Vegas found that the UK’s top choice for the next James Bond is Idris Elba, just ahead of Tom Hardy and Henry Cavill.
Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan confirmed in November that he would not be directing the next Bond film.