After 16 years, five films and one rather questionable pink tuxedo, Daniel Craig's tenure as James Bond has come to an end.
Although we're not quite sure what it is yet Quantum of Solace, we know that Craig has starred in some of the best films in the franchise, and whoever succeeds him as Secret Agent 007 will have a tough time.
Who will be the new Bond is an extremely important decision.
Earnings at the box office largely depend on choosing the right actor for the role.
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"Bond is not just a suit on the red carpet and an expensive watch," says Mark O'Connell, author of the book Catching Bullets: A Bond Fan's Memoir.
"He has to be a movie star, a franchise ambassador, a media diplomat, the anointed of British culture and the true face of a billion-dollar product."
"He has to be instantly recognizable around the world as James Bond." It has to look good, hold attention and dominate on cinema screens the size of football pitches."
Of course, any new Bond will likely want to pay homage to those who came before him in the role, "but he'll bring his own qualities to the role," notes O'Connell.
"He doesn't necessarily have to be THAT man right away, Daniel Craig wasn't when he got the role in 2005. However, he became that over time - something that producer Barbara Broccoli had to instill in him for over a year through conversations about getting into the Bond suit." .
So, who could it be?
There are several candidates whose names have been mentioned in recent years.
Let's start with the basics: one thing we do know is that (i) the next Bond will be a man.
"James Bond can be any color, but he's a man," producer Barbara Broccoli said in 2020.
"I believe we should create new characters for women - strong female characters. I'm not particularly interested in a male character being played by a woman. I think women are much more interesting than that."
With that in mind, you'll hardly find a manlier than Tom Hardy, an actor who played tough guys - he played both of the Kray twins in Legend, we saw him in the movies Venom, Dunkirk i M.
With roles like that, it's easy to see why Hardy has been considered the bookies' favorite for the next James Bond for some time now.
He himself hinted at something like that back in 2012: "I would like to play Bond directed by Christopher Nolan or someone like that." It would be great."
However, at 44, there is a risk that he may have missed the train.
It is worth remembering that Daniel Craig was James Bond for 15 years.
If he stayed that long in the role of Bond, Hardy would have reached the age of 60.
Age is also considered a potential barrier to Idris Elba (49), who was the favorite to take over the role for at least a decade, especially after his extremely convincing role in Stringer Bell in The Wire.
“Cars, ladies, martinis. Well, who would want that? It sounds awful," Elba joked in 2016.
The actor, however, admitted that he may be "too old" to take on the role of Bond.
"Sean Connery and George Lazenby were barely 30 years old when they got the role of Bond.
“As Craig and his injuries will testify, it's difficult to play Bond with an audience expecting action. It's a role for a junior agent," notes O'Connell.
Watch the video: Daniel Craig's farewell to the role of secret agent 007
So which younger actors could be considered?
reggae-Žan Paj, who is 33 years old, is certainly not without chances - every time he stepped on a red carpet he looked like he was auditioning for secret agent 007.
You can't ignore someone who wears a tuxedo as well as he does, and he was given the wind at his back by a former Bond, Pierce Brosnan, who stated that he would was great in the role of agent 007.
Page, however, remained on the ground commenting on the rumours.
"If you're British and you do something that's appreciated, then people start saying the 'B' word," he told The Tonight Show earlier this year.
"It's like an order of merit.
"I am very glad to have the order and I am glad to be in such a wonderful circle of people who already have the order. But that's just a label."
Game of Thrones star (Game of Thrones) Richard Mejthe material moisture meter shows you the is another actor who could be in the running, largely thanks to his role in the BBC drama Bodyguard which required him to wear a tuxedo, drive a car in a firefight and know how to handle a weapon.
And it is only right and reasonable that the producers consider some new Scottish talent, bearing in mind that the first actor to play James Bond in a film series was the late Sean Connery.
But Maiden, 35, also played down the rumours.
He told GQ magazine in 2018 that he was "more than flattered to be mentioned" in relation to Bond, but added: "Everybody likes to talk about it. But I'm just an option at the moment. It will be different next week."
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Similarly, James Norton, another in a string of actors being mentioned, told the Evening standard that Bond is an icon that means a lot to many people, so there is an inevitable amount of speculation.
"But that's just speculation. Very flattering speculation."
The problem with these actors is that they are rated well by the bookies.
Although at first glance this sounds like a good thing, producers have chosen someone far less obvious for the role of Bond in the past, perhaps on purpose.
"It's worth remembering that for a year or two after Pierce Brosnan's last Bond film [2002's Die Another Day], the bookies never mentioned a guy called Daniel Craig because they were obsessed with Clive Owen since he once wore a tuxedo in another film," notes O. 'Connell.
"There's always a 'bookie's favourite' and it's usually some hot actor launching a new weekend television show with a slick marketing team that creates such rumours," he adds.
Could this jeopardize the chances of some other favorites connected to the world of TV drama, such as Aidan Turner, Tom Hiddleston i KIlian Murphy?
Maybe, but we still wouldn't bet against either of them.
Which further brings us to the question - who might be the less obvious choice?
Maybe you haven't heard of before Tom Hopper, but Maiden's Game of Thrones co-star suddenly became interesting to bookies in October, even though he was previously considered a big outsider.
Before the jump in his shares on the stock market for the new Bond, the odds that he would be the next secret agent of the MI6 service were 100 to one.
But by the end of October, odds on him were 3-1 after rumors that he was shortlisted by producer Barbara Broccoli.
Rupert Adams, spokesman for William Hill betting house, admitted at the time that they were taken aback.
"Tom Hopper was completely off our radar, but now he's a solid contender," he added.
The 36-year-old has had roles in TV series such as casualty, Doctors i The Umbrella Academy, and appeared alongside Amy Schumer in the film I Feel Pretty from 2018.
Who else could be considered?
Irish actor Jamie Dornan he turned his attention to roles in Fifty Shades of grey i Belfast Kenneth Branagh. He should not be written off lightly.
Clive Standen, the stars of the TV series Taken (based on the film trilogy of the same name) and Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians), also praised by many.
Actor from Superman Henry Cavill was actually in the option to play Bond last time and many estimated that he was the runner-up after Daniel Craig.
Cavill was in his early twenties at the time, probably too young for the role, which means his chances might be better this time around.
"At this stage, everything is still uncertain. We'll see what happens. But yes, I would love to play Bond, it would be very, very exciting." Cavil told GQ in 2020.
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O'Connell concludes: "I've always said that the next Bond will be someone we all know, but nobody has thought to mention him."
"The names I'd throw in as candidates for drinking a vodka martini, shaken, not stirred, would be: Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Invisible Man), Harris Dickinson (King's Man), George McKay (1917) Matt Smith (Last Night in Soho), Paul Mescal (Normal people) i Nicholas Holt (Big)."
As speculation continues, there's only one thing we can really be sure of.
As viewers are told at the end of the film Nije time to die: James Bond will return.
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