Lowden and Oldman in 'Slow Horses' Courtesy of Everett Gary Oldman is cheering on his Slow Horses co-star Jack Lowden in the 007 race.
The beloved British actor, who has starred alongside Lowden in the Apple series since 2022, spoke in an interview with Canada’s The Morning Show about the upcoming James Bond films, telling the program that the new incarnation of Ian Fleming’s spy has already been selected.
“It’s been rumored that [Lowden] is on the shortlist,” said Oldman. “We’re going to find out pretty soon, aren’t we? Because they have picked him. They have made their choice, but they have not announced it yet. So my fingers are crossed for Jack.”
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It remains to be seen whether Oldman is simply going off a hunch or his widespread industry connections have provided him with some solid intel. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to reps at Amazon MGM Studios for comment.
Denis Villeneuve is set to direct the upcoming Bond film, with Peaky Blinders mastermind Steven Knight penning the script.
Reports have continued to swirl around who might next don the spy’s tuxedo. Callum Turner, Jacob Elordi, Tom Holland, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Harris Dickinson and Lowden are among some of the more high-profile names to have been floated, but Amazon has refused to confirm any casting decisions just yet. (The studio struck a deal with longtime franchise stewards Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson to take full control of the character and its IP in February 2025.)
Just last month, Lowden’s wife and mother of his child, Saoirse Ronan said she was “dead serious” about playing a James Bond villain. “I want to go dark,” the star of Little Women and Lady Bird told Empire while promoting her latest feature, Bad Apples. “I said that I wanted to be a Bond villain and I’m dead serious,” she added. “I think it would be really interesting, having a young female villain. Especially for girls and women, to see someone who can just take all that pent-up anger and direct it somewhere, there’s something interesting in that dramatically. So I would love to do more of that.”
THR took a look at why the Bond rumor mill continues to churn out duds in analysis earlier this year. The gossip, Benjamin Svetkey and Julian Sancton noted, becomes a story of its own, a casting sweepstakes — even if “99 percent of the rumors turn out to be false,” as one longtime franchise insider puts it. “Actually, make that 100 percent.”
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