Prior to Cary Fukunaga coming aboard to helm No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s fifth and final outing as James Bond, Yesterday’s Danny Boyle was attached to direct what was once simply known as Bond 25. Creative differences led to Boyle and writer John Hodge’s exit from the project, but that doesn’t mean he’s not interested in sharing his opinions on the 007 franchise anymore. In fact, he’s shared who he thinks should succeed Craig as Bond: Robert Pattinson.
Daniel Craig began his run as James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale, and he bid the character adieu last year in No Time to Die. You can read through our No Time to Die ending breakdown to learn how things ended for this iteration of the character, but looking to the future, Danny Boyle threw out the name of The Batman’s lead actor as a candidate for the next Bond while speaking with Esquire, saying:
[Robert] Pattinson would be a great Bond.
That’s a good pick, especially since Robert Pattinson has some experience in the spy genre with Tenet. Yes, Christopher Nolan’s 2020 movie was also steeped in sci-fi through its use of time inversion, but there was enough subterfuge and espionage infused in the story that Pattinson’s Neil could be considered a trial run for a potential Bond run. Plus, between The Batman and his time as Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies, Pattinson is an actor who already knows how to navigate major franchises.
While it’s fun to imagine Robert Pattinson playing James Bond going off of Danny Boyle’s suggestion, in reality, he’ll probably be too busy in the coming years to inherit on this fictional mantle. Following The Batman’s critical and commercial success, Warner Bros. announced in late April that The Batman 2 is officially happening, with Pattinson coming back as Bruce Wayne and re-teaming with filmmaker Matt Reeves. The sequel doesn’t have a release date yet, but assuming that Pattinson would still like to act in smaller movies when he’s not continuing his Batman run, it’s doubtful that he’d have time to squeeze in playing James Bond too. That being said, should Pattinson’s name be thrown into the Bond betting mix, alongside actors like Regé-Jean Page and Henry Cavill, we’ll let you know.
Suggesting Robert Pattinson would make a good James Bond is one of several ways Danny Boyle had talked 007 lately. The filmmaker (whose other big credits include Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire) also said that his version of Bond 25 would have seen Daniel Craig’s version of the character traveling to Russia, and that No Time to Die actually retained an idea that he and John Hodge came up with: giving James Bond a child, although how that kid was used differed in their story. Speaking of Hodge, he speculated back in March that the powers-that-be behind what became No Time to Die only wanted him gone, but Boyle “took the bullet, too.”
No Time to Die is available to buy/rent on physical and digital formats, and as soon as any concrete information about what’s next for the James Bond franchise comes in, we’ll let you know. As for Danny Boyle, his latest project, the FX on Hulu miniseries Pistol, premieres for Hulu subscribers on May 31.