Gary Oldman says the next James Bond has already been chosen, and he is putting his weight behind Jack Lowden from Slow Horses. That leaves Amazon MGM Studios with a casting decision that is privately settled but still publicly hidden, a rare place for a franchise that usually feeds on certainty.
Oldman’s picked-him claim
“They have made their choice, but they have not announced it yet,” Oldman said in an interview with Canada’s The Morning Show. He added, “We’re going to find out pretty soon, aren’t we? Because they have picked him.”
He also narrowed his hope to one name: “So my fingers are crossed for Jack.” That matters because Lowden is not just another rumor on the list; he has starred with Oldman in Slow Horses since 2022, giving the backing a workplace familiarity most of the other floated names do not have.
Lowden and the shortlist
Oldman said, “It’s been rumored that [Lowden] is on the shortlist,” which keeps the conversation inside the same pool of possible names that has also included Callum Turner, Jacob Elordi, Tom Holland, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Harris Dickinson. The film itself is set to be directed by Denis Villeneuve, with Steven Knight penning the script, so the next reveal will carry weight well beyond one casting call.
February 2025 changed the business side of James Bond when Amazon MGM Studios took full control of the character and its IP. Since then, the studio has not said who it has chosen, and that silence is what makes Oldman’s remarks useful: they suggest the decision may already be done internally even if the public still has no name to attach to 007.
Amazon MGM Studios and 007
A longtime franchise insider said, “99 percent of the rumors turn out to be false.” The same source added, “Actually, make that 100 percent.” That is a useful warning for anyone treating the shortlist as settled, but it does not erase Oldman’s claim that a choice has already been made behind the curtain.
Saoirse Ronan also entered the wider Bond conversation by saying she was “dead serious” about playing a Bond villain, but that sits on the edge of this story rather than at its center. The real question now is simple: who has actually been cast as the next James Bond, and when will Amazon MGM Studios say so out loud?
