Stroud-based actor Josh O’Connor is reportedly among the names being considered to become the next James Bond, as the search for Daniel Craig’s successor is said to be reaching its final stages.
O’Connor is reportedly linked with the role alongside Callum Turner and Jack Lowden. However, the reported shortlist remains unconfirmed. Neither Amazon MGM Studios nor the Bond production team has officially announced who will play the famous British spy next.
Josh O’Connor’s acting career
The 35-year-old has built an international career across television, theatre and film. He gained widespread recognition for playing Prince Charles in Netflix’s royal drama The Crown. His performance in the third and fourth seasons earned him both a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 2021.
O’Connor was born in Southampton in 1990 and raised in Cheltenham. He trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School before becoming one of Britain’s most acclaimed acting talents.
His breakthrough came in 2017 with God’s Own Country, in which he played a young Yorkshire sheep farmer who develops a relationship with a Romanian migrant worker. The performance won him the British Independent Film Award for Best Actor.
He later played Mr Elton in the 2020 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma. In the 2024 film Challengers, he portrayed ambitious tennis player Patrick Zweig alongside Zendaya and Mike Faist. His other credits include the Italian film La Chimera and the art-heist drama The Mastermind.
What is known about the next Bond film?
O’Connor has already appeared alongside Daniel Craig in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Craig’s final Bond film was No Time to Die, released in 2021 after he had played the secret agent five times.
The next instalment is due to be directed by Denis Villeneuve, who is best known for films including Dune. Its screenplay is being written by Stroud-based writer Steven Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders.
If O’Connor is chosen, he would follow Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Craig as one of the actors to play the legendary British spy.
For now, the possibility remains a reported casting development rather than an official decision. The Bond franchise has not publicly named its next 007, meaning the reported auditions and shortlist could yet change before the production confirms its choice.