Credit: Inside the MagicSpeculation around who might play MI6 secret agent James Bond (AKA 007) next has dominated headlines ever since Daniel Craig hung up the tuxedo and put away the PPK after his final outing, No Time to Die (2021), marked an explosive end to his five-film series, which also included Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), and Spectre (2015).
Now, an untitled film reboot from Amazon MGM Studios is in early development, with Denis Villeneuve (Dune, Dune: Part Two) on board as director and Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) writing the script. There’s no release date yet, but the film is expected to launch a brand-new era for the iconic character, who made his cinematic debut in 1962 with Dr. No.
Related: Amazon Drastically Changes James Bond’s Identity After 63 Years Ahead of Movie Reboot
A History of James Bond in Film
Dr. No (1962) starred Sean Connery as James Bond. The actor also appeared in From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Never Say Never Again (1983).
Bond was later portrayed by Roger Moore (Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill), George Lazenby (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), Timothy Dalton (The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill), Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day), and, most recently, Daniel Craig.
Who’s Next to Play 007?
As for who will play Bond next, that remains to be seen.
Several big names have done the rounds since No Time to Die, including Tom Holland (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (28 Years Later), Idris Elba (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), Henry Golding (Last Christmas), and most recently, Jacob Elordi (Wuthering Heights) and Callum Turner (Eternity).
Talks of a female James Bond have even circulated.
For now, the studio has yet to announce who will be taking up the mantle. But while all eyes are on the upcoming film, Bond is also about to return in several other official installments, some of which will bring back previous iterations of the character.
Related: Meet the New James Bond in the Upcoming ‘007’ Reboot
A New Wave of Bond Adventures
Since his debut in Ian Fleming’s novella Casino Royale in 1953, Bond has remained one of the most iconic figures in pop culture and has been reimagined countless times across media, namely in film, gaming, and literature. Aside from the big screen, it’s the latter where the character has enjoyed most outings. And now, we’re about to get a wave of new novels.
Kim Sherwood’s Hurricane Room, the third entry in her Double O trilogy, hits shelves in May. Then, M. W. Craven’s James Bond and the Secret Agent Academy, which sees 007 training young MI6 recruits, is expected to follow in June. And Vaseem Khan’s The Man with the Golden Compass, the second entry in The Q Mysteries series, which focuses on the brainy Quartermaster and not the iconic MI6 agent himself, will be releasing in October.
An Existing Bond Is Back in His Sixth Outing
But Hurricane Room isn’t the only upcoming entry that brings back a previous version of 007. A fourth new book was recently announced: King Zero, from author Charlie Higson, who wrote the original Young Bond series — SilverFin, Blood Fever, Double or Die, Hurricane Gold, and By Royal Command — and the standalone novella On His Majesty’s Secret Service.
King Zero is Higson’s first adult Bond novel and a continuation of his original saga.
“Le Chiffre. Dr No. Goldfinger. James Bond has faced them all. But now the world is changing, and even 007 has no idea what’s coming for him…,” the synopsis from Ian Fleming Publications reads.
“It starts with a murdered agent in the Saudi desert. Only a traitor could have known enough to bring him down. But even James Bond can’t guess at the secret that was worth killing him to keep. As Bond follows the trail across the globe, he doesn’t realise the countdown has already begun. And hiding in the shadows is a man with more power than he could ever have imagined. Prepare for a villain unlike any before. Prepare for KING ZERO.”
“It’s very exciting,” Higson told MI6.com, adding, “It is very hard to get people excited about books, so when the publisher goes to this level of effort, it says a lot. There I finally am after over 20 years of toiling in the world of writing James Bond! My first big, full-length Bond novel is coming out, and it’s really exciting to be part of the world of James Bond. It’s something special.”
King Zero will be released this September.
Will Any James Bond Actors Return?
Whether any previous actors would ever return in film remains to be seen.
It’s fair to say that Craig’s version of the character is done — he is, after all, the only 007 to have been killed on screen. To date, the only actor who has ever truly reprised his role after a break in continuity is Sean Connery, who was replaced by one-time-Bond George Lazenby for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) but returned in Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
He sat out the franchise again from Roger Moore’s Live and Let Die (1973) through Octopussy (1983), before appearing in the non-Eon-produced film Never Say Never Again (1983). That was Connery’s final outing as the globe-trotting spy, before Moore himself returned in A View to a Kill (1985).
Last year, Pierce Brosnan said he’d be open to playing an older Bond in a future film. However, Amazon MGM has made it clear that the upcoming reboot will feature a new actor, who, according to Deadline last year, will be an unknown British person in their late 20s or early 30s, criteria that rules out all the names that have been floated online in recent years.
The Biggest James Bond Entry of 2026
We’re also getting the third-person action-adventure video game 007 First Light this year.
It introduces a new, younger version of James Bond played by Irish actor Patrick Gibson, best known as the young Dexter Morgan in the Paramount+ series Dexter: Original Sin (2024). It also stars Priyanga Burford (M), Kiera Lester (Miss Moneypenny), Naomie Ackie (Miss Roth), Alastair Mackenzie (Q), Lennie James (John Greenway), Gemma Chan (Selina Tan), and Lenny Kravitz (Bawma).
“Follow James Bond as a young, resourceful, and sometimes reckless recruit in MI6’s training program, and discover an origin story of the world’s most famous spy,” the official synopsis reads.
007 First Light will be released on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows on May 27, 2026.
There’s no release date for the James Bond film.
Which new Bond adventure are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments below!