After more contradictory statements, fake outs, and teases than the average Disney trailer, Daniel Craig finally bowed out of the James Bond franchise in 2021 with No Time To Die. Craig’s fifth outing as Britain’s favorite spy came fully six years after Craig voiced severe doubts about playing the part again.

With the idea of a female James Bond being mooted by fans and commentators alike since Craig’s departure, nothing is certain when it comes to the question of how best to continue one of the world’s most successful and long-lasting movie franchises. But recent reports have suggested that several actors are currently in the running to assume Craig’s mantle. including The Witcher and Enola Holmes star Henry Cavill and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Here’s why we think Taylor-Johnson is the perfect choice for the role.

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Taylor-Johnson Has Bona Fides in the Spy Genre

     Icon Productions

Although still in his early thirties, Taylor-Johnson has an impressive array of roles on his CV. He began as a child actor, appearing in minor roles in a variety of television films and independent productions such as the Jackie Chan vehicle Shanghai Knights (2003) and opposite Edward Norton and a pre-stardom Eddie Marsan in The Illusionist (2006). One of Taylor-Johnson’s most impressive showings during this period was as an 18-year-old John Lennon in Nowhere Boy (2009), which also starred Kristin Scott Thomas as Lennon’s aunt Mimi, and received critical acclaim.

Since then, Taylor-Johnson has appeared in a wide variety of films, graduating in the mid-2010s from special effects blockbusters such as Gareth Edwards’ reboot of Godzilla (2014) to superhero movies such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), in which he played Pietro Maximoff aka Quiksilver, the sister of Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff. Other work has included a starring role opposite John Cena in the 2017 Iraq War film The Wall, alongside Chris Pine’s Robert the Bruce in Netflix’s Outlaw King (2018), and in the Brad Pitt-led film Bullet Train earlier this year.

But Taylor-Johnson’s most impressive qualification to play Bond is his previous work in the spy genre. In 2020, Taylor-Johnson appeared in a supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s time-bending spy thriller Tenet, playing a rough-and-tumble military commander who rescues the heroes in the Estonian capital, Tallinn. His solid, unshowy work will hold him in good stead should the maker of Bond come knocking.

Taylor-Johnson’s Star in Hollywood Is Rising

     Sony Pictures

Bond is a big role, and it’s a big actor who fills it. Roger Moore was already hugely successful as the star of the long-running spy series The Saint before taking on 007, while Timothy Dalton had a slew of appearances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, in flagship BBC dramas, and opposite A-listers such as Richard Harris in big-budget historical dramas to commend him before starring in The Living Daylights (1987). Pierce Brosnan was, likewise, an established name, having played the title role in Remington Steele in the 1980s. The one actor to take on Bond who was a newcomer to acting, Sean Connery’s successor George Lazenby, did competent but unspectacular work in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) before being quietly dropped.

However, after a mixture of character and starring roles, Taylor-Johnson is now gaining a solid reputation as a leading man. As such, he has been tapped for the lead role in Kraven the Hunter, the fourth installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe movies, which is due for release this October. Possessing both the screen presence for the high-octane action scenes that are the stock-in-trade of Bond films and the charisma and suavity that is forever associated with the role is a necessity, Taylor-Johnson is prepared to take on a role like James Bond.

A James Bond Who Looks Like James Bond

     EON Productions 

As the recent speculation about possible replacements for Daniel Craig demonstrates, not much is off the table these days when it comes to what James Bond should look like; aside from the trusty Walther PPK and the tuxedo, what Bond does, who he consorts with, and how he looks are all up for grabs.

With one exception. Not that we hated Daniel Craig’s look. We all know the first blonde Bond knocked it out of the park, but nevertheless, every actor to have played the role before Craig’s arrival from Sean Connery and Roger Moore to Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan had dark hair. Speculations about female Bonds notwithstanding, both Henry Cavill and Lucien Laviscount (who was also rumored to be in the running to play the part) have dark hair also. A dark-haired and sinister Bond might be reverting to type, but there’s no one better to play the role that way than Aaron Taylor-Johnson.