There’s a new tremor in Bond-land, the kind that sends bookies scrambling for their calculators and PR teams reaching for euphemisms like “surge,” “shock,” and “where did that come from?”
For days, whispers have been circling about someone slipping into the lead for the biggest casting prize in British cinema. Not one of the usual headline-grabbers, either.
Not the Marvel bruiser. Not the brooding BBC favourite. Not the man whose name is eternally “in the mix” no matter what the film is. Someone else, whose rise is almost certainly due to his connection with a a pop star.
Only after the betting markets tipped fully into chaos did the name settle: Callum Turner, actor, Londoner, The Capture escapee, and, crucially, fiancé of Dua Lipa, is now the “red hot” frontrunner to become the next James Bond.
In the last 24 hours alone, Coral slashed Turner’s odds from 5-2 to 7-4 as punters piled in with suspicious confidence. “We’ve been knocked over with support,” Coral spokesman John Hill admitted.
The 35-year-old actor has hovered on the longlist for years, but a recent run of attention, including a turn opposite Elizabeth Olsen, seems to have lit the fuse.
Add a very public engagement to one of the most recognisable women on the planet and suddenly Hollywood’s “interesting up-and-comer” looks more like the studio-approved franchise anchor.
The wider field hasn’t vanished. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James remain strong contenders at 3-1. Henry Cavill sits at 6-1, still the sentimental favourite of an internet that refuses to accept defeat.
Anthony Boyle, Harris Dickinson, Jack Lowden and James Norton trail behind at various distances, looking unnervingly like the cast of a Bafta Rising Star dinner party.
Meanwhile, Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page has drifted back into the conversation only to insist he isn’t thinking about it at all, which, historically, is exactly what people say before signing a three-picture deal.
What complicates the guessing game is the franchise itself. Amazon MGM Studios now holds creative control, Barbara Broccoli has stepped back, and Denis Villeneuve, backed by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, is steering the next chapter.
And Villeneuve, according to industry whispers, wants three things: a man, British, and relatively unknown. A cool, stripped-back reset. A Bond without pre-baked mythology.
It’s almost enough to make the whole betting frenzy look premature, until you glance again at Turner, whose CV, profile and timing happen to fit that brief rather neatly.
Nothing is confirmed, of course. It never is until the tux is fitted and the Aston keys are handed over. But for now, the market has spoken, and it’s whispering something unexpected: that the next 007 might arrive with a little help from Dua Lipa.
