Hear Me Out: Tom Holland makes perfect sense for Denis Villeneuve’s James Bond
The hunt for the next James Bond actor is well and truly underway, with constant speculation as to who will play the lead character and who else will flesh out the story world we associate with the suave secret agent.
While everyone from James Norton to Regé-Jean Page has been floated around as potential choices for the next iteration of the character, rumour has it that the search has been narrowed down to three: Harris Dickinson, Jacob Elordi and Tom Holland.
Some might assume that Elordi could be ruled out of the equation given that he is not British, but given that the series will be directed by Denis Villeneuve, perhaps this is not a prerequisite for Amazon. While Dickinson would no doubt shine in the role, his love for independent cinema feels far too strong to be lured over to the dark side of commercial filmmaking, so perhaps we can also rule him out. This leaves us with the most probable choice – Tom Holland.
The Spider-Man actor first rose to fame while playing Billy Elliot at the age of 12, shortly breaking into Hollywood through his leading role alongside Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts in The Impossible. Since then, he has only continued to explode in popularity, with his portrayal of Spider-Man leading to a global reputation as an action star.
Holland is now almost considered to be the Tom Cruise-like figure of his generation, with a natural affinity for stunts and high-octane action sequences that have led to various other roles within this realm of storytelling, which naturally makes him a rather obvious choice to play James Bond.
The actor Amazon executives choose to play James Bond ultimately revolves around what kind of message they want to send to audiences about the future of this franchise. If they are attempting to rebrand this series into something more surprising, then Holland would not fit this rhetoric, with the studio needing to choose someone less mainstream to catch audiences off guard.
But given their choice of director, it seems as though Amazon is aiming for something both classy and commercial, something that aligns with a star like Holland, who in recent years has somewhat evolved into the poster boy for highbrow studio filmmaking. Given his recent career rebranding and leading role in Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, Holland is steadily evolving into this very image, making a shift towards studio projects with a little more substance behind them.
With someone like Villeneuve helming the ship, who has often worked with hugely popular mainstream actors, a star like Holland would seem quite fitting for the James Bond reboot, even if slightly predictable. But after all, Amazon is the force behind the ship, and a truly risky casting decision is not one we could expect from such a greedy and famously safe studio.
It would no doubt be fascinating to see someone unexpected embody this role, but even the rumoured top three choices show that progression or diversity does not seem to be a factor in their thought process. Tom Holland might be the perfect choice for the role given that he is exactly what Amazon is looking for – someone safe, uncontroversial, who will do the job well. And did we really expect anything else?
