Jacob Elordi and Callum Turner's hopes of becoming the next James Bond have been dashed by former casting director Debbie McWilliams, who insists the next 007 must be an unknown.
Next Bond Must Be a Total Enigma
McWilliams, who cast Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig over 40 years, told The Independent the new Bond needs to be a 'total enigma'. She said: 'It is absolutely essential that (Bond) retains a total enigma. I don’t want to see any of them as Bond because we now know so much about them.'
Turner, husband of Dua Lipa, is the bookies' favourite alongside Harris Dickinson. But McWilliams believes they carry too much baggage. 'We want to know as little about them personally as possible, because that’s what spies are. We don’t need to know where he goes shopping or who his parents are, or where he lives.'
Household Names Ruled Out
McWilliams began her Bond work on For Your Eyes Only and replaced Roger Moore in the mid-1980s. She noted that Dalton, Brosnan and Craig were not household names when cast. 'Timothy and Pierce weren’t particularly well known. Daniel had had a career in independent films and a fairly colourful romantic life beforehand, but he wasn’t a household name, and that helps enormously. I want to see somebody who is completely out of the blue.'
McWilliams retired before Amazon's acquisition of the Bond franchise. The search now falls to casting director Nina Gold and director Denis Villeneuve. Deadline reported in May that Gold is searching for actors from London's West End theatre shows rather than films.
