Pierce Brosnan gave Callum Turner his Bond blessing — fans would take a 73-year-old Brosnan instead

In a Vanity Fair interview reported by Variety on November 3, Pierce Brosnan all but anointed one of the men auditioning to succeed Daniel Craig:

"Callum Turner is someone I've worked with, and he's so strong."

— Pierce Brosnan, to Vanity Fair

The two shared the screen in 2017's The Only Living Boy in New York, and per Variety, final screen tests for Denis Villeneuve's Bond are taking place in London this week, with Turner and Slow Horses star Jack Lowden as the two frontrunners.

A blessing from a former 007 is the kind of endorsement studios dream about. The r/movies thread under the news read it differently — "too posh and caricature like" was a typical verdict — and the harshest reply turned the blessing against its giver:

"I'd take 73 year old Pierce back as Bond over Callum Turner tbh"

The strange shape of this casting race

Brosnan's endorsement is also carefully hedged — he praised the whole field, "a voice and a physique, and a presence on film," and cast himself as "just the man in the street" eager to see who lands the role. On the film itself he went further, predicting audiences "are going to be blown away" with Villeneuve directing.

The audience's warmth is distributed the opposite way. Bookmakers have had Turner leading the odds for months, while the same report shows Lowden winning the fan polls, and oddschecker had Lowden odds-on as screen tests began. Villeneuve is the one piece of this production nobody argues about; Turner — Masters of the Air, Fantastic Beasts, tabloid-famous as Dua Lipa's fiancé — is the piece the internet has decided to fight over before Amazon has said a word.

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Craig started here too

If Amazon and Villeneuve go with Turner, the new era opens exactly where the last one did: with a rejection campaign. In October 2005, Daniel Craig was greeted with CraigNotBond.com, boycott calls, and the "James Blond" sneer — a revolt that ran right up until Casino Royale ended it in one weekend.

Craig was rejected by fans from his announcement to his premiere, then delivered Casino Royale. Turner's rejection campaign has started before the announcement.

That's the actual stake of this week's screen tests. The precedent says a pre-hated Bond can be vindicated; it took a career-best film to do it. Turner, if chosen, inherits the "not my Bond" campaign on day one — and the burden of proving he's a Craig and not a caricature falls on a first film that won't reach theaters for years.

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