Next James Bond Star Will Be ‘Nervous As Hell’ Playing 007

Former 007 star Pierce Brosnan said that whether the next James Bond actor is well known or a relative newcomer, he will need to brace himself for “a huge undertaking” and will be “nervous as hell” taking on the iconic role.

Four years after the latest James Bond star, Daniel Craig, wrapped up his run as the British Secret Service agent with No Time To Die in 2021, Amazon MGM Studios reached a deal in February to team up with franchise rights holders — producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli — and take creative control of the 007 franchise going forward.

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Since then, Amazon MGM has made two major creative decisions for the 26th Bond film, including the hiring of Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve to direct the next movie and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight to write the screenplay.

Without questions, the next big creative move the studio will make — if not the most important one — will be the hiring of the next actor to play Bond.

During a recent Zoom conversation for his new film, the Netflix original whodunit The Thursday Murder Club, Brosnan said it doesn’t matter if the new 007 is an experienced actor or is new to the game because either way “they’re going to be nervous as hell” when taking up the mantle of the legendary role.

“It’s a huge undertaking. It’s a landscape of performance and acting, and the character is like no other character you will ever play,” Brosnan said.

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Bond has been such of a huge part of Brosnan’s life that more than 20 years after he played 007 for the last time, he knew going into interviews for The Thursday Murder Club that questions about the franchise would hard to resist.

“My wife said to me, ‘Don’t answer any questions about James Bond. Nothing,’ but I knew it was going to be hard not to,” Brosnan said. “Any man who finds this role in his life, I wish him well. It’s very exciting. It’ll be very exciting to see what they do with the franchise.”

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Pierce Brosnan, of course, followed Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton to become the fifth actor to play Ian Fleming’s iconic British super spy on the big screen.

After playing Bond in GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002), the role was handed over to Daniel Craig for Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021).

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Even before No Time to Die was released, speculation began to ramp up in the movie industry and the general public over who should play the next James Bond. Among the names that have been bandied about is Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who has starred in such films as Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending time travel thriller, Tenet, and most recently, Danny Boyle’s horror thriller 28 Years Later.

In an April interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Brosnan seemed to endorse Taylor-Johnson for the role of the next Bond, citing his previous work with the actor on the 2009 coming-of-age romantic drama The Greatest.

“This young man came on the set and took the space, filled the space with passion and energy. So yeah, I think if he wished it, wanted it and got it, he would be great,” Brosnan said of the idea of Taylor-Johnson taking on the role of the super spy.

While Brosnan knows the decision of who will be the next 007 is not up to him, he’s happy to join in the conversation about it and reflect on his work in the franchise any time anybody asks him about it.

“It’s my life, my legacy and again the gift that keeps giving,” Brosnan enthused. “It’s allowed me to be commercial. It’s allowed me to be in front of an audience to reach the world — and for that, I’m forever grateful.”

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In The Thursday Murder Club, which premieres on Netflix Thursday, Brosnan plays Ron, a former union activist who teams up with three other retirees (Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley and Celia Irmie) living in a retirement community to solve cold case murders.

However, a dispute about the future of the facility with its owner and a land developer results in a murders that hit too close for comfort, so the group of true-crime investigators — who dub themselves the Thursday Murder Club — spring into action.

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club is directed by Chris Columbus.

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