James Bond actor Rory Kinnear has weighed in as speculation hots up around who the next actor to play 007 will be.
Rory has played MI6’s chief of staff Bill Tanner in the last four Bond films, sharing the screen with Daniel Craig, who officially retired from the franchise following the release of No Time To Die in 2021.
In the time since No Time To Die’s release, rumours have been rife about who Daniel’s successor as the iconic MI6 agent will be, with recent reports in the media naming British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a potential successor.
During Friday’s edition of The One Show, on which Rory was a guest, presenter Roman Kemp pointed out there’d been “a lot of noise about Aaron Taylor-Johnson potentially becoming the next 007” in the past week, and asked the Black Mirror actor for his thoughts.
However, he apparently remained unconvinced about how reliable the rumours are.
“I always feel slightly bad for the people who are being highlighted, because that never tends to be them,” Rory explained. “They are very good at keeping the real person secret.”
He added: “I’d be interested to see who does take over, obviously, but it tends not to be the frontrunner, that’s historically.”
Idris Elba and Tom Hardy have both long been linked with the role of 007, with George Mackay, Regé-Jean Page and Lucien Laviscount having all being rumoured more recently.
Check out our round-up of all the most popular rumours about who the next James Bond will be here.