The Next 007? Every Man Who Has Been Rumored to Take Over as James Bond

As Daniel Craig prepares for his last James Bond performance in 'No Time to Die,' fans are already wondering who will take on the role next — details

Who will it be? Daniel Craig will say goodbye to James Bond after the premiere of No Time to Die in September 2021 — and fans have questions about the next actor in line.

Craig originally suited up for the character in 2006, appearing in five films since then as the British secret agent. The Knives Out star followed in the footsteps of Barry Nelson, Sean Connery, Bob Simmons, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan to portray Ian Fleming’s character.

But as Craig prepares to drink his last vodka martini (shaken, not stirred), rumors have already started to surface online about who the next contenders for James Bond could be.

Producer Barbara Broccoli has previously said that people behind the scenes aren’t considering anyone until “the dust has settled” on Craig’s time with the franchise.

“I always say, you can only be in love with one person at a time,” Broccoli told Total Film in October 2020 when asked about Bond’s future. “Once [No Time to Die]’s come out, then some time will pass, and then we’ll have to get on to the business of the future. But for now, we just cannot think about anything beyond Daniel.”

Earlier that year, the film producer shared some of the criteria that went into choosing their next leading man.

“James Bond can be of any color, but he is male,” Broccoli said in an interview with Variety in January 2020. “I believe we should be creating new characters for women — strong female characters. I’m not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that.”

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo actor recently confirmed that he was on the same page about having a woman take on that specific role.

“The answer to that is very simple. There should simply be better parts for women and actors of color,” Craig told Radio Times in September 2021. “Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?”

While an action actress may not be filling Craig’s shoes, fans have their eyes on another rising star.

Following Regé-Jean Page‘s surprising decision not to return for season 2 of Bridgerton, people quickly started to speculate whether that meant he was in the running to play James Bond.

“I spend a lot of time at the moment talking about what other people are saying about me, as opposed to anything I’m actually doing,” Page told Variety about the rumors in May 2021.

Although the Netflix star hasn’t ruled out the possibility that he could take over for Craig, he couldn’t speak too much about a role that wasn’t officially offered to him.

“I can’t talk about the B-word, because I’ve got nothing to say on the B-word. I can’t talk about which jobs I’m not doing, because I’m not doing them, [but] I’m very happy with the work I am doing,” he said at the time.

Scroll down for all the men that have been rumored to be in the running for the role of James Bond: