Aaron Taylor-Johnson was the favorite to play James Bond in 2024. Is he still in the running?
In the spring of 2024, the only open question about Aaron Taylor-Johnson and James Bond seemed to be the date of the announcement.
Daniel Craig played 007 for the last time in No Time to Die in 2021, and the search for his replacement has been running ever since. The next film, known for now as Bond 26, is being made by Amazon MGM Studios, with Denis Villeneuve directing, Steven Knight writing, and Amy Pascal and David Heyman producing. It's eyeing a 2028 release. Taylor-Johnson, the British star of Kick-Ass, Nocturnal Animals and Bullet Train, spent most of 2024 as the name everyone expected to hear.
The offer that wasn't announced
In March 2024, The Sun reported that Taylor-Johnson had been formally offered the role after a screen test, and that Eon Productions, the family company that had made Bond films since 1962, had picked its man. Bookmakers made him the favorite. Every red carpet turned into a Bond interview.
At the premiere of The Fall Guy that April, a reporter asked whether he got sick of the question. He had one ready.
"You sick of asking the question?" Taylor-Johnson shot back.
No announcement came. By December 2024, William Hill had moved Paul Mescal ahead of him, fresh off Gladiator II.
The people who picked him left the room
Then the ground shifted under the whole search. In February 2025, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson handed creative control of the franchise to Amazon MGM, which reportedly paid $1 billion for it. Whatever Eon had decided in 2024 no longer decided anything.
Amazon started from scratch. Villeneuve signed on in June 2025, Knight in July, and the formal casting search, run by casting director Nina Gold, began in May 2026.
Taylor-Johnson kept the rumor alive in the meantime, maybe without trying. In May 2025, he became a global ambassador for Omega, the watch Bond has worn since GoldenEye in 1995. Fans read it as a hint. By November 2025, Callum Turner had passed him in the betting.
The final four
In October 2026, Deadline reported that Amazon had invited four actors to final screen tests: Callum Turner, Jack Lowden, Josh O'Connor, and a fourth who hasn't been named. Turner reportedly arrived at Bray Studios in Berkshire for his test on October 30.
Gary Oldman, Lowden's co-star on Slow Horses, claims the decision is already made.
"They have made their choice, but they have not announced it yet," Oldman said.
He also has a favorite: "So my fingers are crossed for Jack." Three days after Turner's test, Showbiz411's Roger Friedman went further: "Word on the street is that Callum Turner is the next James Bond." Amazon hasn't confirmed anyone.
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Is Taylor-Johnson still in the running?
Not by name. He isn't one of the three actors reported for the final screen tests, and Amazon hasn't said who the fourth one is.
What's ruled out is the usual excuse. Taylor-Johnson turned 36 in June, and the three named finalists were all born within months of him:
- Callum Turner — born February 15, 1990
- Josh O'Connor — born May 20, 1990
- Jack Lowden — born June 2, 1990
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson — born June 13, 1990
Amazon is casting from his exact age group, just not, as far as anyone has reported, him. Craig was 37 when he was announced in 2005. That leaves the mystery fourth slot as his only way back in, and no one has reported him in it.
His next big role is already set. On December 25, Focus Features releases Robert Eggers' Werwulf, with Taylor-Johnson in the title role.
Previously we wrote: Pierce Brosnan gave Callum Turner his Bond blessing — fans would take a 73-year-old Brosnan instead