Pierce Brosnan, who wore the tux from 1995 to 2002, thinks Amazon MGM Studios might skip every name on the current shortlist and hand the license to kill to a total outsider.

In an interview with The Times published Friday, Brosnan said "there are lots of good hats in the ring" and "lots of great actors" under consideration for Denis Villeneuve's Bond reboot. Then came the line doing the rounds now. "They could probably just go left-field and pick someone that none of us know about," he said.

He wasn't naming anyone. Brosnan, 73, said his wife had told him to keep quiet and that he'd already said too much. "Because once I say something it goes everywhere and I get hanged," he told the paper.

The comments land as casting director Nina Gold works through her own list for the studio, according to earlier Variety reporting. Gold's credits run from The Crown to Conclave to Les Misérables, plus an Oscar nomination this year for Hamnet, so she has a track record of finding actors before the trade press catches on.

A shortlist full of familiar faces

That hasn't quite been the story so far. The reported names in the running, Callum Turner, Jacob Elordi, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Harris Dickinson and Jack Lowden, read like a list British tabloids have covered for years. Brosnan's suggestion cuts against months of that speculation, and it's worth noting none of it has been confirmed by Amazon MGM either way.

He's floated Bond takes before. Back in August 2025, talking to Radio Times, Brosnan joked about playing a "craggy, 72-year-old Bond" himself, bald cap and all, if Villeneuve had something up his sleeve. This time he walked well clear of wanting the job. He said he hasn't even rewatched his own four films since they came out. "I'm just a member of the audience now awaiting the next Bond and wishing him well," he said.

Villeneuve is directing off a script from Steven Knight, the Peaky Blinders creator, for Amazon MGM Studios, which took creative control of the franchise from the Broccoli family after decades of family stewardship over the property. Daniel Craig closed out his run with No Time to Die in 2021, and the guessing game over his replacement has run long enough that even actors who used to play Bond are guessing along with everyone else.

No casting has been confirmed. Amazon MGM has said nothing about whether Gold is looking outside the reported shortlist, or how close the studio actually is to a decision. Until that changes, every name in circulation, known or unknown, stays exactly that.