Ahh yes. Good old ‘Pearly’. Gardner mentions Bond’s ‘annual fortnight’ with SAS in several novels and Fleming has a few references to Bond training or having trained with Commandos regularly. Alas, while good ideas, this is all just a notion.
But, obviously, the gears are turning and there’s some smoke coming out of the stacks at Eon and that’s a good thing.
Wey-hey! Even a stopped clock is right twice a day 
Scorpius is an awful book, but Pearly is a well conceived character with great potential in Srong’s hands.
Strong is always a solid actor - just a shame he gets so many hammy roles - so i can see him playing the main villain. Boyle tends to stick with non-a-listers as villains (e.g. Vincent Cassel in Trance), so it wouldn’t be a big surprise if he went with Strong; i suspect Boyle has no time for egos and entourages.
However, Strong would be excellent as another 00. On occasion we’ve had another 00, such as Pike’s traitor, but never a real head to head, such as with Red Grant and Scaramanga.
???
I see we’re going to get to go through the Mark Strong rumors again. Almost as certain to have those at this point as we are to have both Gulshan Grover and Sean Connery appearing as villains in the latest film.
Remember the silly ‘rumour’ of Connery’s CR cameo - hiding under a table as Bond fought. 
On some level, that would have been hilarious.
Would have made for an incredible twist had he also been cast to play Kincaid in SKYFALL.
I’d rather have Mark Strong be the villain than Helena Bonham Carter. She’s overexposed and overacts. He’s underrated and is great even in bad movies.
Of course, anybody can add hashtags these days.
But Mark Strong allowing this in reference to Danny Boyle and BOND 25 seems like an indirect announcement.
If not, Strong would be endangering not only his friendship with Craig but also making himself the laughing stock in the industry.
Unless it was meant to be a joke, perhaps with Daniel’s blessing, since he and Mark are friends. Just to see how a silly rumours spreads all over the internet.
Personally I wouldn’t mind Strong playing a villain. However I find it hard to believe that this trainer of his is as clumsy as this.
The Instagram post has now been edited to remove the Bond-related hashtags.
I wonder if he got told off about it?
Possible…
Then again, that doesn’t really clarify anything; you could argue either way whether it was anything substantial or not.
True. In any event, it was a weird action.
I could see Craig and Strong doing it for a laugh. I think they enjoyed the speculation that bubbled over before Spectre began filming. Craig seems to enjoy stirring the pot with media/fandom.
Probably gets him through his (stated) least favourite part of the job.
Well you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, so editing the post if it was a leak is a strange move. Right now, Craig’s the only one who can say he’s in Bond 25 officially. When someone screws up like this trainer MAY have, there’s two ways to go. Damage control and reversal, or let it run it’s course like a fever and fizzle out. It’ll be interesting if Strong says nothing or makes a denial statement/post. If no response though… Well…
I wan’t suggesting that Grant or Scaramanga were 00s. Just that they were great examples of Bond going head to head with the villain, physically, as well as psychologically.
Bond’s showdown with Bean’s ex-00 in GE is another great example. But it would be good to have Bond dual a current 00, or even 00s for whatever contrived reason the writers come conjure…
How about Bond getting a lead on a spy at MI6. Turns out there’s more than one and Bond is framed by a syndicate of corrupt 00s. This makes for a cat and mouse conspiracy plot and showdown between Bond and multiple 00s with orders to kill Bond (M being unaware of the manipulation).
Mark Strong would be a good fit for one the 00s.
Understood, but who’s “Pikes Traitor”?
Arh… Sorry, i should’ve clarified - Rosamund Pike’s dodgy 00 in DAD 
They never said she was a 00 did they?