I’m starting to get James Bond-rumor-fatigue. How can there still be so much uncertainty around the casting of the new James Bond? Denis Villeneuve is set to direct the new take on 007 next year. Granted, the Broccolis only sold total control of the Bond franchise over to Amazon last year, but I really thought that by November 2026, we would have a firm shortlist of maybe two or three names with no big surprises left. Instead, they’re ADDING names to the Bond stakes. We know that producers have been doing screen tests for the final candidates in recent weeks, but we didn’t know Robert Pattinson was one of the actors being tested. Nor did we know about Nicholas Hoult!!

In a surprise few saw coming, Robert Pattinson has emerged as a contender for 007. The actor, 40, is among those who have screen tested for the role of James Bond, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, joining hopefuls Callum Turner, Jack Lowden and Josh O’Connor.

Conventional wisdom has been that the next man to get the license to kill would not be a globally recognized star like Pattinson, one of the biggest actors of his age cohort, and already the face of DC Studios’ Batman franchise. The screen tests are said to have occurred the weekend of Oct. 24. THR previously reported that four, possibly five actors were in the mix but only three names surfaced at the time.

Another name now surfacing as one of the Bond mystery men is Nicholas Hoult, a runnerup to Pattinson for Batman years ago.

Pattinson is a favorite of auteurs from Robert Eggers and the Safdie brothers to Christopher Nolan, whose 2020 spy movie Tenet might feel like a Bond audition in hindsight. And more importantly, he worked with Bond director Denis Villeneuve on the upcoming Dune: Part 3, which bows Dec. 18 and is said to have gone well for the two men.

The actor is in the midst of the biggest year of his career, with a key role in Nolan’s The Odyssey and as the co-lead of A24 hit The Drama and anchoring the well-reguarded movie Primetime, also from A24. He’s currently filming The Batman Part II in London, where screen tests have been taking place.

[From THR]

Yeah, as soon as I heard Pattinson’s name, I thought about Pattinson coming in to play the “big bad” Scytale in Dune 3. Denis does enjoy Pattinson, and I would guess that Denis was the one who asked for Pattinson to be screen-tested. I don’t really see Pattinson as a super-spy, but his potential Bond press would be phenomenal. He would be lying his ass off and hurting himself as he tried to do stunts in real life. Not to mention, he would probably do some wild accent work as Bond too. But everyone’s sort of sleeping on Nicholas Hoult’s entry into the Bond stakes, right? Because he would be so good. Hoult might be my favorite among this shortlist.

Incidentally, Variety says that Theo James hasn’t been ruled out, and that Harry Styles even had some discussions about Bond. Come on… no to both. Also: there’s a rumor going around that Pattinson screen-tested for the next Bond villain, not Bond. Which actually makes so much sense.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.