James Bond author Charlie Higson has said that any actors rumoured to be taking on the role of 007 on the big screen have already been rejected.
Higson has written several Young Bond novels and was recently commissioned by the Ian Fleming Publication to pen new Bond novel, On His Majesty’s Secret Service.
In a new interview with PA, Higson was asked if he knew who would be replacing Daniel Craig as Bond on the big screen following the actor’s departure in 2021’s No Time To Die.
“As soon as the papers say, ‘So and so is being considered as the next James Bond’, you know that they’re not going to be the next James Bond, you know that they’ve been rejected,” he said.
“[The studio] play their cards very close to the chest. A lot of times they really surprise people. Nobody had any idea at all that [Daniel Craig] might be Bond but then he’s just so good in Casino Royale [that] any doubts you might have had immediately go out the window.”
“They’re pretty clever on that front,” Higson added, saying that the announcement will come at the “right time”.
So far, both Idris Elba and Taron Egerton have denied that they’re set to become the next Bond.
In 2021 Elba ruled himself out of taking over the role and later said that the rumours were “a compliment and an honour, but [they’re] not a truth”. Meanwhile, Egerton said: “I don’t think I’m the right choice for it”.
“It’s sort of irrelevant how I feel about it, anyway, because I can tell you there have been zero phone calls,” he added.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson has also been rumoured to play Bond but the actor said that he was trying to ignore any and all speculation. “The moment you start believing the shit people say about you, you’ve lost your fucking mind.”
Last December Taylor-Johnson and Henry Cavill were tied as the bookies’ favourite to become the next Bond.
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