Amazon MGM Studios still has not said who will play James Bond, and a report published November 6 has added two familiar names to the list. Robert Pattinson and Nicholas Hoult both screen-tested for 007, according to that report. Amazon declined to comment.
Treat it as a casting rumor until the studio says otherwise. No actor, title, filming start or release date has been announced for the 26th film in the series, and the only on-record word on casting remains a short statement the studio issued on May 14.
“The search for the next James Bond is underway. While we don’t plan to comment on specific details during the casting process, we’re excited to share more news with 007 fans as soon as the time is right.”
What Amazon has actually confirmed
The confirmed team is short and senior. Denis Villeneuve, the director of the Dune films, signed on in June 2025. Amy Pascal and David Heyman are producing, Tanya Lapointe is executive producer and Steven Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders, is writing the script.
Villeneuve’s own statement at the time set the tone for how seriously the studio wanted this handled. “To me, he’s sacred territory,” he said, adding that he intended to “honor the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come.”
The reason a new studio is making these calls at all dates to March 2025, when Amazon MGM closed a joint venture with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson that gave it creative control of the character. Broccoli and Wilson had guided the films for nearly three decades. In plain terms, Amazon now decides who 007 is, and it has chosen to say nothing while it does.
How the search reached this point
- March 24, 2025: Amazon MGM formally takes creative control of Bond
- June 25, 2025: Villeneuve announced as director
- July 31, 2025: Knight confirmed as writer
- May 14, 2026: Studio says the search for a new Bond has begun
- Late October 2026: Trade reports say final screen tests are imminent
- November 6, 2026: Report names Pattinson and Hoult among those tested
Both names fit the franchise’s new business logic better than its old casting habits. Each actor is British and each already carries a studio franchise, with Pattinson playing Batman and Hoult playing Lex Luthor for DC. Pattinson also has a working relationship with Villeneuve, having been cast in Dune: Part Three.
The same report said Harry Styles has had conversations about the part and that Theo James has not been ruled out, while Callum Turner, Josh O’Connor and Jack Lowden have been the most persistently rumored contenders. None of that is confirmed either. Bond casting has always produced far more candidates than vacancies, and a screen test is an audition, not an offer.
The realistic window is narrower than the speculation suggests. Producer Amy Pascal said in August that casting news before the end of 2026 was likely, according to a report, and a tracker of the production puts a release before 2028 as unlikely. Any new Bond would be the first since Daniel Craig, whose final outing, No Time to Die, came out in 2021.
Hoult, at least, has a date on the calendar. His Amazon MGM film How to Rob a Bank opens in theaters on November 13.
Further reading
Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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