Aaron Taylor-Johnson hopes in doubt as new ‘big contender’ emerges in race to play 007

Bond fans thought there was a breakthrough earlier this year when reports emerged claiming Eon Productions had offered Kick-Ass star Taylor-Johnson the role.

However, Barbara Broccoli and the team at Eon soon poured cold water on the suggestion but ever since the betting markets for who’ll play Bond next have seen Taylor-Johnson reside as frontrunner.

That may be about to change though as bookmakers and punters begin to look elsewhere for punts to replace Craig.

According to new data, Taylor-Johnson is no longer riding solo in a one-horse race with bookmakers as a star of Apple’s big-budget WWII series, Masters of the Air, has emerged as a “big contender”.

Lee Astley, spokesperson for betideas.com, explained all and told GB News why Callum Turner could be the man slipping into Bond’s tuxedo next.

He said: “The next Bond film rumour mill finds itself in full operation once again and we’ve seen big movement in the ‘Next Bond Actor’ and ‘Next Bond Film Director’ markets.

“Aaron Taylor-Johnson was a strong favourite at 4/11 to take over from Daniel Craig but has now drifted to 10/11, with Callum Turner emerging as a big contender, shortening into 4/1 from 8/1.”

This dent in Taylor-Johnson’s chances combined with a surge in popularity with Turner coincides with the reports that the latter’s girlfriend, Dua Lipa, could be in line for a shock appointment as the next Bond Girl.

Elsewhere, punters can secure a price of 6/1 on the likes of Rege-Jean Page, Damson Idris, and Henry Cavill – although the latter was branded the “most likely” to replace Craig according to a new AI study earlier this year.

News of Turner’s surge in the market comes just days after Amazon MGM Studios’ global head Jennifer Salke addressed the length of time it’s taken to find Craig’s replacement.

Salke was part of the Amazon team that snapped up MGM in 2021 for a whopping $8.5 billion – although Amazon MGM still has to contend with Eon which has retained control of the Bond franchise.

Speaking publicly about the delay in a rather rare insight, Salke told the Guardian: “There are a lot of ideas [about potential actors] that have popped up that I thought are interesting.