Onetime James Bond Casting Director Insists There’s One “Absolutely Essential” Trait The Next 007 Must Have

Deadline reported exclusively earlier this month that James Bond producers and director Denis Villeneuve have begun informing talent who have made the next round of auditions, which will occur later this summer. There is no confirmed list, but that hasn’t stopped fans and the media from throwing out names like Callum Turner, Harris Dickinson and Jacob Elordi. But one person who knows something about casting 007 says none of them fit the bill.

Debbie McWilliams cast the last three Bonds and all the films they were in, from For Your Eyes Only to No Time to Die. That’s 40 years in His Majesty’s Secret Service before she retired. McWilliams wants to see “somebody who is completely out of the blue.” She adds that it is “absolutely essential” Bond remains “a total enigma.”

She explained her stance to The Independent: “We want to know as little about them personally as possible, because that’s what spies are. We don’t 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’s licensed to kill, and we have to believe that he can do that. If you don’t, then you’ve lost the audience.”

The woman currently busy casting the next Bond seems to agree.

Baz Bamigboye reported exclusively for Deadline in May that his conversation with casting director Nina Gold was not about film or TV personalities, but centered more on actors who’d trod the boards in London’s West End.

Bamigboye pointed out that what caught then Bond grande dame Barbara Broccoli’s eye was the combination of Daniel Craig’s work in Matthew Vaughn’s 2004 film Layer Cake, what she’d seen of him on stage in David Rabe’s Hurlyburly at the Old Vic and his performance opposite Michael Gambon in Caryl Churchill’s A Number at the Royal Court Theatre.

He noted Gold nodding when he rattled off a list of potential contenders: David Shields, who was so good in James Graham’s award winning play Punch which ran in the Nottingham Playhouse, the Young Vic and on Shaftesbury Avenue at the Apollo; Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson who’s very much a theater animal having acquitted himself well opposite James Norton and Omari Douglas in Ivo van Hove’s production of A Little Life. He will next appear with Keira Knightley and Stephen Dillane in the stage adaptation of The Lives of Others in the fall. That’s right about the time the big decision may be made by Bond’s new gatekeepers, producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman — along with Villeneuve and Amazon MGM brass.

Baz Bamigboye contributed to this report.