Daniel Craig Replacement Search Raises The Stakes As Gambling Sites Choose The Next James Bond
It looks like the search for the next James Bond to replace Daniel Craig is starting to heat up with online bookmakers drawing clear lines
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America’s bookmakers have finally spoken. They want Regé-Jean Page’s silky smooth Byronic touch in their new James Bond and will not accept anything less. The Bridgerton actor is America’s choice for Daniel Craig’s replacement, an official US Bookies tally (via MovieWeb) reveals. British-owned betting website Oddschecker currently reflects the same ranking with a 26% probability (37/13) of Page eventually being chosen as Bond.
Oddschecker’s bookies had previously ruled Tom Hardy as next in line to succeed Craig as 007 with a 29.8% chance of winning the super-spy lottery. Unfortunately for the Venom star, Hardy has since dropped to 25%, a touch lower than Page’s Oddscheckers placing. The part-Zimbabwean Londoner presently stands at 5/2 (28.6%) this month, with Hardy at second place at 3/1 (25%), if US Bookies is to be believed.
Though most Bonds are certainly beloved for their dashing good looks, being pretty isn’t all there is to it. Having that casual propensity for beguiling everything he lays his eyes on is a time-honored skill only the best actors can fully actualize. If being a sex symbol is all the part needs to flourish, any man could be 007. And yet becoming James Bond is the complete package, a challenge not even Daniel Craig could swagger up to perfection. And with the Knives Out star departing the role this year, it’s all hands on deck for the next Bond hopeful. The Chester native is leaving behind a sprawling legacy, and his relief would have to match him — and his predecessors — in every way imaginable. James Bond is the British monarchy of movie franchises, where only the worthy survive.
At present, all eyes are on Regé-Jean Page and Tom Hardy for the next James Bond, with almost every gambling outlet betting good money to see either man take over from Daniel Craig after No Time To Die. Other favorites aren’t too far down the line, with James Norton tied with Hardy at 25% and Henry Cavill and Idris Elba close by at 12.5% (7/1) and 11.1% (8/1), respectively. Oddscheckers boasts a near-identical tally, with Norton down by 7.1% at 23/5 (17.9%) and Cavill and Elba neck-and-neck at 10/1 (9.1%). The Little Women star was previously fourth after Taken’s Clive Standen, who disappears from the tally completely after only just throwing his hat into the ring barely a week ago.
Lashana Lynch, who did replace Craig as 007 in No Time To Die, is at number six at US Bookies, with a 9.1% chance of keeping the part. Justin Hartley, who is sixth at Oddschecker, ranks seventh at 9.1% as well. The Injustice star was previously placed at number nine by British bookmakers.
The rest of the list has basically played out like clockwork, shuffling every so often as bettors eagerly respond to social media trends. Adam Rayner enters the race at ninth (tenth at Oddschecker) thanks to his role as Kryptonian invader Tal-Rho in the CW’s Superman & Lois. Hardy himself owes his current popularity to the last two Venom movies; same goes for Elba with The Suicide Squad, Lynch with No Time To Die, and Page with Bridgerton. Sam Heughan suffers a breakthrough drop this week, making way for longtime favorites Michael Fassbender, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Luke Evans. Despite recent film exposure in Marvel’s upcoming spectacle Eternals, Richard Madden buckles a step below Heughan, accompanied by Cillian Murphy, Tom Hiddleston, and Henry Golding. Plenty of prospective 007s waiting in the wings, and yet still no fitting James Bond in sight. These actors have a lot to live up to after Daniel Craig’s tenure and executives know it.
Barbara Broccoli, long time James Bond producer, had this to say about Daniel Craig at the closing of his stint as the famed M16 agent: “I always say: you can only be in love with one person at a time. Once the film’s come out, then some time will pass, and then we’ll have to get on to the business of the future. But for now, we just cannot think about anything beyond Daniel.”
Those worrying over their own preferred Bond’s chances have nothing to fear checking out these gambling sites. Like everything left up to probability, the ranking ebbs and flows erratically with the times. Trends dictate who comes first and who falls last, and availability plays a massive role into eventual castings. For all we know, a spot opens up for Regé-Jean Page in a separate series, or Idris Elba signs up for more Suicide Squad movies.
Tom Hardy himself has already booked a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s ongoing line of Spider-Man flicks, with Let There Be Carnage’s post-credits scene officially making Hardy’s Venom/Eddie Brock canon in Tom Holland’s growing multiverse of Sinister Six villains. Only time will tell. For now, our only James Bond is Daniel Craig. Check him out in Cary Joji Fukunaga’s No Time To Die, currently playing in theaters.
