Meet Aaron Taylor Johnson the actor who could become the next James Bond. Eon Productions, known for making spy thriller films, is getting ready to start shooting a new movie this year.
A source said: “Aaron has been offered the role of Bond, and they are waiting to hear back from him.
“Eon expects Aaron to sign his contract soon, and they can start preparing for the big announcement.”
The next Bond movie was delayed because of Hollywood strikes last year, but now a script is being worked on, and production is set to happen at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.
Aaron, who is 33 years old, was considered for the role along with actors like Cillian Murphy, Idris Elba, Henry Cavill, and James Norton.
Today, bookie Coral changed the odds on Aaron taking the role of Bond and made him the favorite at 2/1.
When asked if he would take on the role, Aaron said: “I’m flattered that people see me in that role. I take it as a great compliment.”
In 2022, The Sun revealed that he was in the running for the role after secretly testing for Bond movie producer Barbara Broccoli at Pinewood Studios.
Aaron, from High Wycombe, Bucks, became famous for starring in the Kick-Ass and Avengers movies.
He started acting in 2000’s The Apocalypse, with Richard Harris, and appeared in the 2008 teen movie Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging and 2022’s Bullet Train with Brad Pitt.
Insiders said Aaron’s role as a psychopath in the 2016 thriller Nocturnal Animals, which won him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, made him a strong choice for Bond.
A source said: “Aaron may not be the most famous actor, but he is incredibly talented. His role in Nocturnal Animals showed his depth as an actor.
“He is the perfect person to play Bond and will pick up well from where Daniel left off.”
Daniel Craig, 56, put down his Walther PPK pistol for the final time after 2021’s No Time To Die, which ended with a shocking finale where Bond is apparently killed off.
With 007 seemingly dead, it’s unclear where the next movie will fit in the timeline.
Aaron’s personal life has been more talked about than his acting career.
He married filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood, 57, in June 2012, after meeting her on the set of Nowhere Boy — which she directed and he starred in.
When they started dating, Aaron was 18 and Sam was 42.
Aaron said: “I think we’re really great at collaborating but that’s not why I fell in love with her. I’ve got really nothing to hide and I’m secure in what we have.”
Aaron and Sam married at private member’s club Babington House in Somerset and have two daughters, Wylda, 13, and Romy, 11.
He is also stepfather to Sam’s two daughters, Angelica, 25, and Jessie, 15, from her marriage to art dealer Jay Jopling.
Aaron has said of life as a parent: “I enjoy the normality of things, the everyday stuff. Getting my kids ready in the mornings, taking them to school and activities. That feeds my soul.
“I knew I was going to have a big family. I knew I was going to be a young father. I knew I was going to have many kids.”
Sam spoke about falling for Aaron on the Nowhere Boy set but insisted nothing happened until filming had ended.
She said: “I managed to hold off really until almost the end of the film. We weren’t even together then. Maybe feelings were there but un-acted upon.
“The thing is, we had quite a psychic link when working together. I knew from a flicker of an eyelash what kind of performance I was going to get. I felt that link almost from day one of meeting him.”
The couple, who live in London, are rarely seen together in public but often share photos of one another on social media.
Aaron celebrated Sam’s birthday last week with a black and white picture of them together.
He posted: “You’re an exceptional woman, there’s really no one quite like you. I couldn’t be more proud and excited for this year ahead.”
Sam has directed Back to Black, the Amy Winehouse biopic, which is out on April 12.
Aaron has a new Marvel film, Kraven the Hunter, out later this year.
Bond boss Barbara previously confirmed they would be casting a man in the 007 role despite calls for a woman to step in.
She said in 2020: “James Bond can be of any colour, but he is male. I believe we should be creating new characters for women.”
For several months now, the movie world has been buzzing with rumours about who will play the next 007. Though several names have been suggested, only one seems to receive unanimous approval: Aaron Taylor-Johnson. And it must be said that the 33-year-old British actor has everything it takes for this exacting mission, for which he has apparently already been auditioned. A rising Hollywood star, he possesses the perfect combination of bulging muscles, piercing blue eyes, and unsettling charisma for the role of the mythic gentleman spy.
But then it seems that every costume and every genre – comedies and tragedies, charmers and weirdos, super-productions and indie projects – perfectly fit the intense and versatile Taylor-Johnson. Ready to take risks and radically change his physique, he has played a teenage superhero nerd (Kick-Ass), the angry young John Lennon (Nowhere Boy), a redneck Texan murderer (Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals, for which he won a Golden Globe), a mutant blond (Avengers: Age of Ultron), a military commander (Christopher Nolan’s Tenet), not to mention a moustachioed hitman stuck in a carriage with Brad Pitt (Bullet Train).
A must-see actor, soon to star in The Fall Guy and Kraven the Hunter
And these represent perhaps only a tiny fraction of his possibilities and the mere beginning of his rise to stardom. This year, Taylor-Johnson will make three major appearances on the silver screen: as a cinema superstar who suddenly disappears in the action movie The Fall Guy, alongside Ryan Gosling; as a Marvel antihero in Kraven the Hunter; and in the dark remake of FW Murnau’s 1920s classic Nosferatu. And yet, working non-stop is not what nourishes the soul of an actor who one imagines as an old head on a young body, given the apparent depth of his wisdom. When interviewed, he says the thing he likes best is spending time with his wife, the photographer, video artist, and film director Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey), who is 23 years his senior and whose name he has adopted.
He also says he likes nothing better than taking his children to school (he is the father of two daughters and step-father to two others), before talking about how normal their life is on a Somerset farm (he divides his time between England and Los Angeles) full of bees, dogs, chickens, and pigs. Indeed, the man who was once a turbulent and self-destructive teenager has even refused blockbusters in order to spend more time with his offspring. With his mix of authenticity, sensuality, and strength, Taylor-Johnson could not fail to seduce fashion ho