{"id":562946,"date":"2026-07-01T06:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/562946\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T06:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:38:16","slug":"jacob-elordi-and-callum-turner-shouldnt-be-the-next-james-bond-says-former-007-casting-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/562946\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Elordi and Callum Turner shouldn\u2019t be the next James Bond, says former 007 casting boss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jacob Elordi and Callum Turner shouldn\u2019t be the next James Bond, according to a former 007 casting boss.<b\/><\/p>\n<p>Debbie McWilliams, the franchise\u2019s longtime casting director who has worked on Bond films for over 40 years, does not want to see rumoured James Bond hopefuls Jacob Elordi, Callum Turner or Harris Dickinson become 007 when the new Bond is announced.<\/p>\n<p>McWilliams was responsible for casting Timothy Dalton, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/pierce-brosnan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pierce Brosnan<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/daniel-craig\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Craig<\/a> in their bond roles. She retired before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/tag\/amazon-prime\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon<\/a> acquired the Bond franchise and now the job of assigning the next Bond falls to casting director Nina Gold and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/films-dune\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dune <\/a>director <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/denis-villeneuve\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Denis Villeneuve<\/a>, who was announced as the next Bond director last year.<\/p>\n<p>Gold is an Emmy and BAFTA Award winner best known for her work on the shows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/series\/game-of-thrones\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Game Of Thrones<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/series\/the-crown\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Crown<\/a>, while on the big screen she has been involved with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/films\/star-wars\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Star Wars<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/films\/jurassic-world\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jurassic World<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/brands\/marvel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marvel<\/a> franchises, as well as Oscar winning dramas such as The Power Of The Dog and Hamnet.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking about the rumoured favourites of Elordi, Turner and Dickinson, McWilliams told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/arts-entertainment\/films\/features\/james-bond-who-new-actor-casting-debbie-mcwilliams-b3004775.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Independent<\/a>: \u201cI don\u2019t want to see any of them as James Bond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She continued: \u201cIt is absolutely essential that [Bond] retains a total enigma. I don\u2019t want to see any of them as Bond because we now know so much about them. We want to know as little about them personally as possible, because that\u2019s what spies are. We don\u2019t need to know where he goes shopping or who his parents are, or where he lives. We never want to see him at home. And a vital element of the whole thing is his job description. He\u2019s licensed to kill, and we have to believe that he can do that. If you don\u2019t, then you\u2019ve lost the audience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTimothy and Pierce weren\u2019t particularly well known. Daniel had had a career in independent films and a fairly colorful romantic life beforehand, but he wasn\u2019t a household name, and that helps enormously. I want to see somebody who is completely out of the blue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also argued that Bond should also remain a man because \u201cit\u2019s how Ian Fleming wrote it.\u201d She continued: \u201cWhy would you want to change that? They haven\u2019t changed Harry Potter to Alice Potter or to a different ethnicity. That\u2019s how it was written and that\u2019s how it should remain, I believe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Back in May, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/film\/james-bond-casting-is-officially-underway-overseen-by-game-of-thrones-veteran-3945562\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon confirmed that the search for the new Bond actor was officially underway<\/a>. They said at the time: \u201cWhile we don\u2019t plan to comment on specific details during the casting process, we\u2019re excited to share more news with 007 fans as soon as the time is right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It has been almost five years since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/daniel-craig\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Craig\u2019s<\/a> exit from the series in 2021\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/films\/no-time-to-die\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No Time To Die<\/a>, but pre-production on the 26th 007 adventure is moving ahead. Villeneuve will be directing from a script by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/steven-knight\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steven Knight<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/series\/peaky-blinders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Peaky Blinders<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Late last year, Turner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/film\/callum-turner-is-new-bookies-favourite-for-next-james-bond-3914223\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">became the bookie\u2019s favourite for the coveted role<\/a>, with bookmaker Coral saying in December that he had 7-4 odds to succeed Daniel Craig, ahead of the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/aaron-taylor-johnson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aaron Taylor-Johnson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/henry-cavill\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Henry Cavill<\/a>. Reports also emerged that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/film\/you-actor-tom-francis-auditioning-to-play-james-bond-report-reveals-3945940\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">You actor Tom Francis was also auditioning for the role<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, earlier this month, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/idris-elba\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Idris Elba<\/a> confirmed he would not be playing Bond, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/film\/idris-elba-says-bond-audiences-wont-go-for-a-black-man-playing-007-3949833\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">saying that he felt some audiences wouldn\u2019t \u201cgo for\u201d a Black actor playing the role<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacob Elordi and Callum Turner shouldn\u2019t be the next James Bond, according to a former 007 casting boss.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[45436,434,18,117,19,17],"class_list":["post-562946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-amazon-prime","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116843348326492172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}