Peaky Blinders Star Cillian Murphy Tipped as the James Bond Reboot’s Next Baddie
The Oppenheimer Oscar winner is now the odds-on favorite to play the big bad in Amazon’s reboot of a beloved action franchise.
Bond rumors never sleep. The latest: bookmakers just shuffled the deck on the next 007 movie, and there is a new frontrunner to play the big bad. If you felt the earth tilt slightly, that was the Cillian Murphy effect.
The new favorite to menace 007
With Daniel Craig's Bond definitively blown to smithereens in 2021's No Time to Die, the franchise is rebooting. As the betting markets sniff around the next chapter, one name just vaulted to the top for the villain: Cillian Murphy. The logic is simple and a little irresistible — Steven Knight (the mind behind Peaky Blinders) is writing the script, and Murphy is, well, Murphy.
"Cillian Murphy's ... now our clear 3/1 favorite to play the next Bond villain," said William Hill spokesperson Lee Phelps.
Here is where the odds currently sit:
- Cillian Murphy — 3/1
- Colin Farrell — 5/1
- Oscar Isaac — 6/1
- Idris Elba — 7/1
- Pedro Pascal — 8/1
- Tom Hardy — 8/1
- John Boyega — 8/1
"Names like Colin Farrell, Oscar Isaac and Idris Elba are all firmly in the mix, but after lighting up the red carpet in Birmingham this week, Murphy is looking like the one punters most want to see battle it out with 007 in the next film," Phelps added.
What the new Bond era looks like (so far)
The franchise sits under the Amazon MGM Studios banner now, and the next film is being built out for that pipeline. The current chatter has Steven Knight scripting with a director slot reportedly aimed high — Denis Villeneuve's name is doing the rounds. If that pairing sticks, expect precision-engineered tension and a villain who actually earns the monologue.
So who is James Bond this time?
On the hero side, the names getting the loudest buzz right now: Callum Turner, Jacob Elordi, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, and Harris Dickinson. Meanwhile, longtime fan-favorite 007 daydreams like Murphy, Idris Elba, and Tom Hardy seem to be pivoting into prime villain territory — which, honestly, could be a great use of that screen presence if the plan is to cast a younger Bond for a long run.
As always with betting markets, none of this is a lock until a contract gets signed and a tux gets tailored. But Murphy vs. 007 in the first movie of a new era? That would be a strong statement out of the gate.