Pierce Brosnan knows what it takes to play James Bond. He did it four times. Now the former 007 has said a few warm words about one of the actors in the race to be the next one: Callum Turner.
“Callum Turner is someone I’ve worked with, and he’s so strong,” Brosnan said in a new magazine interview this week.
Father and son on screen
The two actors know each other well. In the 2017 film The Only Living Boy in New York, Brosnan played Turner’s dad.
Brosnan did not say that Turner should get the part. He said he likes all the men who are being talked about. “They all have a voice and a physique, and a presence on film,” he said.
He also said he is waiting for the news like everyone else. And he had a kind message for the actor who gets the call: “Whoever plays the role, I wish him the very best of life and strength and courage.”
Who is Callum Turner?
Turner is a 36-year-old English actor. Many fans know him as Theseus Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts films. He also starred in The Boys in the Boat, a rowing drama directed by George Clooney.
Clooney has backed him for Bond too.
The race for 007
The new Bond film is being made by Amazon MGM Studios, and Denis Villeneuve, the director of the Dune films, is in charge. The studio has not named its new James Bond yet.
According to reports, the search is down to a short list. Turner, Jack Lowden and Josh O’Connor are said to be on it, along with one more actor whose name is not known. Final screen tests were reported last month. Lowden has his own famous supporter: Gary Oldman, his co-star in the TV series Slow Horses.
Brosnan is excited about the director too. “I think we are going to be blown away,” he said about Villeneuve’s film.
Brosnan’s own time as Bond
Brosnan played 007 in four films, starting with GoldenEye in 1995 and ending with Die Another Day in 2002. He is 73 now, and this time he gets to sit back and watch someone else take the famous tuxedo.
Our take
A good word from a former Bond means a lot. Brosnan was careful and did not pick a winner, but he clearly rates the actor who once played his son. Turner is already known around the world, so it is easy to see why his name keeps coming up.
We still have to wait for the studio to make its choice. Until then, every new hint will get people talking.
Who would you pick as the next James Bond? Tell us in the comments.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Pierce Brosnan at the Berlin Film Festival 2014 by Sebaso (CC BY-SA 3.0); Callum Turner at the Berlin Film Festival 2026 by Harald Krichel (CC BY-SA 4.0); Callum Turner at the Venice Film Festival 2025 by LucaFazPhoto (CC BY-SA 4.0); Pierce Brosnan at the Berlin Film Festival 2010 by Siebbi (CC BY 3.0).
