With a year and a half having passed since the release of Daniel Craig’s final James Bond movie, speculation continues to be rife over his replacement. Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson have let slip that the next 007 can be of any race but must be male and probably someone in their thirties. One star with action experience and plenty of humour to boot is Taron Egerton.
The 33-year-old played Sir Elton John in Rocketman and had his big break with the spy spoof Kingsman. Egerton, who stars in the new Apple+ TV movie Tetris at the end of the month, is currently 33-1 to be the next James Bond.
In recent years there’s been some buzz around him from fans, but does he have what takes to be 007? The star has spoken out on the matter in a new interview and confessed his fears surrounding the much-coveted role.
Speaking with the Telegraph, Egerton said: “I don’t think I’m the right choice for it. You have to be consistently statuesque to be that guy. And that’s something that I am still striving for. I’ve always struggled with my weight.” The 33-year-old admitted he finds himself working out how much time he needs to spend in the gym when offer the role.
He continued: “[Playing Bond] is a bit like being a brand ambassador as well as being an actor. And that could be really fun in microcosm, but I’m sure I read that Barbara Broccoli said that it’s a 15-year commitment. It’s sort of irrelevant how I feel about it, anyway, because I can tell you there have been zero phone calls.” Nevertheless, he’s feeling positive about returning as Eggsy in Kingsman 3.
READ MORE: POLL: Who do you want as the next James Bond?
After having starred in the first two movies opposite Colin Firth, both Egerton and director Matthew Vaughn have “very strong opinions [on] what it should look like. We complement each other well, Matthew and I, but we are very different. I think the most interesting question is: if Eggsy was the recruit at 22, who is he at 35? What have those 13 years done to him? If you had to live in that Kingsman world, what would it do to you?”
In the meantime, Vaughn is currently working on his new spy movie Argylle starring Henry Cavill, who is the joint next Bond frontrunner with Aaron Taylor-Johnson on 5-2.
