James Bond Has Been Cast, Says Jack Lowden’s Co-Star

Jack Lowden in Slow Horses

Courtesy of Apple

Name after name has been trotted out by insiders and the trades over the past few years, an endless hunt for who is meant to be the next James Bond. New Bond films, now under Amazon’s purview, will begin a new era starting with a Denis Villeneuve movie, and you can’t get much better than that. But of the Bond candidates, one has lately attracted more buzz than most, and this comes at a time when reportedly, the role has been cast.

Jack Lowden, who plays a demoted MI-5 agent in Apple TV’s Slow Horses, is now a name attached to the Bond hunt over in the past few months. Now, it’s his Slow Horses co-star, the famed Gary Oldman, who says the part has been cast:

“It’s been rumored that [Lowden] is on the shortlist,” said Oldman. “We’re going to find out pretty soon, aren’t we? Because they have picked him. They have made their choice, but they have not announced it yet. So my fingers are crossed for Jack.”

So, while Oldman seems to know the role has been cast, he says he doesn’t know who has it, even though his co-star is on the shortlist. Oldman is not the only Slow Horses actor rooting for Lowden. James Callis made an entire post on Instagram dedicated to promoting Lowden as Bond, though there it comes off more as cheerleading than insider knowledge.

Jack Lowden is 36, and would certainly be an interesting pick given his veteran status in a (comedic) spy series since 2022. Since then, five seasons of Slow Horses have aired, and a sixth will begin on September 18. Slow Horses is well-known in the streaming industry for managing to get out seasons more quickly than any other series. At one point, season 7 was filming while season 5 was airing.

Lowden would be on the lower end of “known” actors vying for the role. That list includes Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi, Nosferatu’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Gladiator 2’s Paul Mescal among others. Though it stands to reason a relatively less-unknown actor may be what producers are looking for, and it’s already been confirmed that they are going for a younger Bond this time around. Lowden would be older than some of the other candidates, and Daniel Craig was 38 when he starred in Casino Royale, so that may be a bit of a question mark.

I like Lowden, but after 30 episodes of Slow Horses it is hard to see him as a more serious agent than River Cartwright. That said, he has my vote. I do think Oldman may genuinely not know who was cast, and he’s not just playing coy, but if it really is the case that the search is over, I would expect it to be announced soon before it’s leaked.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.