Henry Golding Explains Why Bond Isn't the Dream Role You Think It Is
As the next James Bond movie crawls through development hell (again), Henry Golding is here to remind everyone that maybe — just maybe — being 007 isn't the fantasy people make it out to be.
"It's every actor's kind of nightmare," Golding told People this week, after news broke that Dune and Sicario director Denis Villeneuve will helm the next Bond film. Golding, whose name has floated through the rumor mill more than once, didn't exactly leap at the idea of slipping into the tux.
"Maybe I'm just a p***y. I don't know," he said. "But I think I would love it so much more if there wasn't that overhanging cultural pressure."
His biggest gripe? The baggage.
"But at the same time, [you're] also wanting to kind of add something new to a franchise," he said. "Why can't they bring out more agents or more 00s? I think that would be so much more fun, because there just isn't the restraints and the expectation."
The suggestion — more agents, fewer tortured reboots — didn't land well online. Fan responses ranged from "Stick to acting, bro" to "They already tried that in Casino Royale… the 1967 one."
To recap the state of Bond, for those still keeping score:
- Daniel Craig's run: 5 films, from Casino Royale (2006) to No Time to Die (2021), which officially killed off his Bond, in a timeline that apparently has nothing to do with Connery, Brosnan, or common sense.
- Next director: Denis Villeneuve, confirmed by Amazon MGM Studios this week. Tanya Lapointe will executive produce.
- Producers: Amy Pascal and David Heyman. According to Amazon MGM's Courtenay Valenti and Sue Kroll, they're "in London getting started."
Studio comment:
"We are committed to honoring the legacy of this iconic character, while bringing a fresh, exhilarating new chapter to audiences around the world." Translation: we have no idea what this will look like yet, but it'll definitely have a car chase.
Bond may be "returning," but the fantasy of a seamless reboot is long gone. Between Amazon's corporate grip on the franchise and the cultural landmine that is recasting a character played by six wildly different actors over 60 years, the role of 007 comes with enough pressure to crush most careers.
And that's kind of Golding's point. Everyone wants to be Bond — right up until they realize they'll be screamed at by angry men online for not ordering a martini the "right" way.
Villeneuve's involvement is, to be fair, promising. He's one of the few directors who could turn this thing into something stylish, sharp, and not totally devoid of a pulse. But with no actor officially cast and no title announced, Bond 26 is still in development limbo — and even the actors circling it are starting to sound exhausted.