Months ago, Amazon MGM announced that they were very focused on finding the new James Bond. Daniel Craig’s final turn as 007 happened five years ago, and it took years and a $1 billion buyout for Amazon to completely get their hands on the James Bond property in 2025. Amazon has surprised me – I thought that as soon as they bought out the Broccoli family, a million different Bond and Bond-spinoffs projects would be launched. Instead, the Amazon team is actually taking this seriously. They’ve hired Denis Villeneuve to direct, and they’ve already spent months looking for the new 007. In June, we got an interesting shortlist of “guys who are auditioning,” and the list included Jacob Elordi, Callum Turner and Harris Dickinson. Callum has been climbing up the Bond stakes recently, at least those are the rumors. But… what about a Scotsman? Why isn’t a Scotsman on the list? Well, there’s a new rumor about Jack Lowden. Aka Mr. Saoirse Ronan, aka Mr. Darcy in the latest Pride & Prejudice adaptation.

The rumour mill has been in overdrive when it comes to who’ll be the next James Bond – and presenter Richard Osman has now shared the 007 name that’s been revealed to him. In the latest episode of The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, the former Pointless star said that a Scottish actor is being “strongly considered” for the iconic role.

Teasing the discussion early on in the podcast, Osman said: “Someone told me for definite who the new Bond is the other day, but I mean that’s happened before.”

He later told co-host Marina Hyde: “The name I’ve heard is Jack Lowden. It is definitively not a ‘he’s definitely got it’ thing. He is definitely being strongly considered. I think he’d be amazing.”

Hyde concurred that, at 36, Lowden is at “a good age” to play 007, with Osman adding: “I think Jack Lowden would be an incredible Bond. He’s got real Daniel Craig energy.”

Lowden is best known for playing River Cartwright in Slow Horses, while his other credits include the BBC’s adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, Dunkirk (2017) and Mary Queen of Scots (2018). Later this year, he’ll appear as Mr Darcy in Netflix’s new adaptation of Pride & Prejudice.

Osman and Hyde were discussing new research which reveals the public’s top picks for Bond are Inception’sTom Hardy and Superman star Henry Cavill.

[From The Independent]

It’s not going to be Tom Hardy – too “difficult.” It won’t be Henry Cavill either, although I’m sure he was in the mix a decade ago. I believe the previous shortlist was probably closer to the “type” they’re looking for – a Millennial in his 30s, someone who could believably do fight sequences and someone who isn’t going to repeatedly talk about how he hates making Bond movies (ahem, Daniel Craig). Jack is an interesting name to put in the mix – are we ready for a strawberry blonde/ginger James Bond? No, here’s the real question: are we ready for a bearded Bond? Because Jack Lowden only does it for me when he has a beard.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.