No Time to Die still hasn’t slipped out of the public consciousness yet, having recently become just the second Hollywood blockbuster since the end of 2019 to cross $700 million at the box office, but it won’t be long before the attention fully and firmly shifts towards the identity of the next James Bond.
Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson confirmed the casting search gets underway next year, with the franchise at a very interesting crossroads following Amazon’s acquisition of MGM in a multi-billion dollar deal. The list of potential candidates has thrown up a mix of entirely expected and also surprising names, but it would be safe to say that Dwayne Johnson isn’t going to be slipping into the tux and necking shaken-not-stirred martinis.
However, during a recent Q&A with Esquire, the actor and producer admitted that he still wants to become the next 007, continuing the family legacy after his grandfather Peter Fanene Maivia played a villain in 1967’s You Only Live Twice.
“Yes, my grandfather was a Bond villain in You Only Live Twice with Sean Connery. It was very, very cool. And I would like to follow in his footsteps and be the next Bond. I don’t wanna be a villain. Gotta be Bond.”
Obviously, Johnson isn’t going to be the next James Bond, and he’ll be fully aware of that fact. At least he managed to scratch that itch a little bit in Netflix’s Red Notice, where at various points he gets dressed to the nines, drops some witty one-liners and heads off on a globetrotting adventure.
