Pierce Brosnan Is Rooting for Cillian Murphy to Play James Bond
Could Cillian Murphy be taking his next role shaken, not stirred?
The “Oppenheimer” Oscar nominee is Pierce Brosnan‘s pick to take on the role of James Bond in the next 007 iteration. Brosnan, who iconically played Bond across four films from 1995 to 2002, told the BBC while at the annual Oscar Wilde awards that fellow Irish star Murphy would make for the perfect Bond.
“Cillian would do a magnificent job as James Bond on His Majesty’s Secret Service,” Brosnan said.
The role of Bond was taken up by Daniel Craig in 2006; he portrayed the MI-6 assassin until 2021’s “No Time to Die.” While no announcement has been made yet as to whom will take over the MGM tentpole franchise, rumors have swirled that Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Regé-Jean Page, and Henry Cavill are on the short list.
Brosnan previously told GQ that he doesn’t “care” which actor is cast. “It’ll be interesting to see who they get, who the man shall be,” Brosnan said. “Whoever he be, I wish him well.”
Bond franchise producer Barbara Broccoli has teased that any reboot is at least two years away, telling The Guardian that there is pressure to “reinvent” the franchise especially following the Amazon/MGM merger.
“I think these movies reflect the time they are in, and there’s a big, big road ahead reinventing it for the next chapter and we haven’t even begun with that,” Broccoli said in October 2023. “I go back to ‘GoldenEye’ when everyone was saying. ‘The cold war is over, the wall is over, Bond is dead, no need for Bond, the whole world’s at peace and now there’s no villains.’ And boy was that wrong!”
Meanwhile, potential 007 star Murphy is poised to take home the Best Actor Oscar for portraying atomic bomb scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Murphy already won a Golden Globe for his performance in the Christopher Nolan film.
Oddly enough, “Oppenheimer” writer/director Nolan said in July 2023 that he would only return to franchise filmmaking if it was for a Bond movie. As Murphy and Nolan have collaborated on a slew of projects together, including the “Batman” franchise, could Bond be their next dual outing?
“I love those movies. The influence of those movies on my filmography is embarrassingly apparent. You know? So there’s no attempt to shy away from that. I love the films,” Nolan said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. “It would be an amazing privilege to do one.”
