He’s been one of numerous candidates rumored for years, but talk of Tom Hardy potentially replacing the exiting Daniel Craig as the next James Bond are heating up.
The Vulcan Reporter reports that according to their sources, Hardy was offered the iconic part after a successful audition back in June. They report that producers had planned to unveil Tom as the next James Bond in November, around the same time Craig retires, but the news will now be announced later this year or early 2021.
How true the report is isn’t clear, but people are taking it at least semi-seriously with numerous major news outlets including The Daily Mail and The Mirror picking it up, whilst bookies odds on the star have now been slashed in half from 8/1 to just 4/5 in the past day after a flurry of bets.
Hardy has made it clear he’d be happy to take on the role. However, unlike some others who’ve been suggested in the past, Hardy has steadfastly refused to talk about the part in fear it will get him blacklisted.
Speaking to The Daily Beast a little while back, he was asked about Bond rumors to which he responded: “If I mention it, it’s gone. You know, there’s a saying amongst us in the fraternity of acting, and in the fellowship of my peer group, that if you talk about it you’re automatically out of the race. So I can’t possibly comment on that one”.
Hardy is currently 43, a little older than most freshly cast Bonds but behind Roger Moore who turned 45 in the year his first Bond film “Live and Let Die” opened.
53-year-old Craig’s final Bond film, the Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed “No Time To Die,” will be released in November.