Holland is 29 now, the same age Lazenby was when he gatecrashed Eon House - but the difference could hardly be bigger. Holland will likely age so favourably he could go on playing Spider-Man for another ten years.
The danger is, if this is left entirely to studio arithmetic one might well make a convincing case appealing to their favourite fetish of target audience: he’s already an established star with a young fanbase made up to a considerable extent of females. He’s well trained, versed in the ways of big productions and the promo campaigns these entail. All things a studio - here Amazon but indeed any studio - would like to get for its upcoming tentpole production that mustn’t fail.
Let’s hope the decision isn’t made along these lines…
I think when The Odyssey comes out, a lot of people are going to reassess their opinions of Tom Holland as an actor. It’s easy to forget that before Spider-Man, he was a well-regarded stage actor and had earned a lot of praise for films like The Impossible.
Still completely wrong for Bond though.
He’s a certainly fine actor, no doubt. And probably arrives at that crossroads in a career where he has to decide whether he wants to spend the next stage of his working life largely with blue/green-box parts. His career has already shown a considerable range and THE ODYSSEY suggests he’s going to aim for a variety of roles in the future that goes beyond comic book/game adaptations.
There are tons of fantastic actors. Heck, I absolutely adore the range and ability of Andrew Garfield.
But he would be miscast as Bond.
Tom Holland, as pointed out before, has the advantage/disadvantage of looking boyish. Like Michael J. Fox, he will be able to play younger than he is for a long time. But he does not have the built, face, voice, swagger Bond needs.
Indeed. In that ODYSSEY trailer Holland looks roughly 19 or thereabouts. He would not be able to buy alcohol at my local supermarket without a driving licence or some other document. And I certainly think he and his management are well aware of it.
It’s not going to be Holland. They just have to look back at the internet hissy fit that people threw when they realized the new blonde Bond was under 6 feet tall. Holland is a few inches shorter than Craig.
He’s not my first choice, as I think Bond should debut somewhere between 35 and 40, but if they go the route of a younger Bond that could grow into the part over the long term, they could do worse. I do think, though, that with someone like Villenueve involved, they’re going to go with someone who can more easily pull off the grittier side of Bond as opposed to a version that is more centered between the two sides of the character that I think Holland would bring to it.
Unless they’ve already got a couple of Academy Awards on the mantelpiece a Nolan production is adding to the prestige and market value of nearly every actor. And the films have potential to become classics of their respective genres (if we don’t want to put them into the ‘Nolan genre’ pigeonhole). Careers can get a great push from working with Nolan.
All of that, and I’d never get past him already being Spider-Man. Give us someone with a clean slate. If they do go younger, surely there is someone out there who can radiate intensity and charisma, and believability navigate a grown up world. I’m treating the Holland stories as too ridiculous to be taken seriously. It won’t and can’t be him.
Again, I like Tom Holland, and think he is a great Peter Parker/Spider-Man, but he is completely wrong for James Bond. He looks too boyish and nowhere near tough-looking enough to be a military veteran or an assassin-trained agent. He also doesn’t give off suave sophistication nor a command-the-room type aura that 007 possesses. And add to that the fact that he is much too short for Bond. As dalton mentioned, Daniel Craig was the shortest Bond at 5’10" and that is probably as short as a 007 actor should be. Regardless, Holland is listed at 5’6.5" / 5’7" and that is WAY too short for Bond.
No, Holland is not right for the role. His intangibles are good as Dustin pointed out earlier, but virtually everything else falls short. I’m pretty confident he will not be cast. Still, his (rumored) continued presence high up in running is concerning, though I think it’s due mostly to drum up interest in the subject.
This. We mustn’t forget these multiple iterations about people ruling themselves out, talking about two decades old screen tests or the obvious prestige of the role are part of the pre-production promo campaign, conceived and written mainly to inspire online discussion without any real connection to the actual BOND 26 process. It keeps names in the social media feeds and if they meet with uproar so much the better. The outlets get their klicks and Amazon awareness for Bond years ahead of the release.
Considering the source I’m inclined to believe he did do a screen test. From the photos I’ve seen Scott looks very much in the Craig/Dalton mould, and based on his age it could be an indication we’re not getting a very young incarnation of Bond.
It surely points to the start of the process. And they could make him look at the darker end of red/chestnut no doubt, so that needn’t be a problem. We’ll see whether other contenders doing screen tests are in the same age bracket or not. For a young-ish Bond one likely wouldn’t start with Rose-Marsh - then again, nor would one with Craig. But it likely shows whatever Villeneuve sets out to do is still malleable enough for a ‘traditional’ Bond age.
Always provided this report is accurate of course…
My criteria is, if they need to work on his image to make him look like he could be James Bond…then he’s not good to play James Bond.
Even today, Pierce Brosnan leans on a car and everybody goes “Whooaa…James Bond!”
This guy would be “Hey! Get your elbows out of my car!”
Even Craig just had a little haircut. Although it’s a pretty random name to come out as simple fake rumour…
I suppose they start assessing the field in the whole bandwidth, going by qualities they want to see in their lead. It wouldn’t necessarily mean ‘this is it’ so much as ‘this could be it’. Since this is clean slate they start with everything and the kitchen sink - and probably develop the story parallel to the casting.
