Josh O’Connor Should Be James Bond

MH Illustration/Jason Speakman/Getty Images5 min readWHEN THE NAMES of the rumored final contenders to play the next James Bond were floated in the press a couple of weeks ago—seemingly Callum Turner, Jack Lowden, Josh O’Connor, and a mystery third candidate, according to Deadline—I heard a lot of the same sentiment afterward. In more or less words, a lot of people seemed to say “I love Josh O’Connor, but he shouldn’t be Bond.” When I dropped the link into a group chat full of people who aren’t inhaling movie news like I am, there was another probably common response: “I don’t know who that guy is, but he doesn’t look like Bond.”To me, that sentiment is exactly why O’Connor is the best—and, in some ways, the only—choice to be the next James Bond.For those not familiar, O’Connor, a 36-year-old Brit who grew up in Cheltenham, has been a working actor for more than a decade, but his star has only really begun to shine in the 2020s. He won an Emmy for playing Prince Charles in The Crown, and more recently has made splashes in movies like the thrilling and sexy sports film Challengers, Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out film Wake Up Dead Man (which, ironically, he appeared in alongside previous Bond Daniel Craig), and this summer’s Steven Spielberg blockbuster Disclosure Day. It’s not hard to understand why some people’s minds might naturally push against the idea of O’Connor as Bond. Where 007 is typically a classically handsome, devilishly smooth gentleman who almost looks like a video game simulation—seriously, look back at Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan for just a second—O’Connor is a bit off-kilter. His hair is wavy; his ears are prominent; his smile is asymmetrical. There’s no beating around the bush—he’s been compared more often to Linguini from Pixar’s Ratatouille than the idea most people have of what a James Bond should be.NetflixO’Connor and Craig in Wake Up Dead Man. But it’s through those eccentricities that O’Connor shines. If you take the time to watch his performances, you’ll find the constant image of someone who brings an undeniable charisma to every project, and somehow manages to mold that into something different each time. In Challengers, O’Connor is the kind of guy you want to root against—he’s sleazy, not a particularly good friend, and unrefined. But he brings the perfect bit of steamy, compelling energy to a love triangle that wouldn’t be the same without him. Co-stars Mike Faist and Zendaya are deserving of credit (as are composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), but O’Connor’s charm is what makes the whole movie work.He pulls a similar magic trick with just about every other performance. In Wake Up Dead Man, he plays a former boxer-turned-priest who once accidentally killed a man in the ring. Throughout the course of the film, O’Connor goes from someone who wrestles with guilt, shame, and intrigue to someone who can believably talk someone struggling with grief off a ledge—all while both trying to solve a murder and possibly being suspected of that same murder at the same time. In Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, O’Connor plays a less-than-competent, hardly aspirational art thief who stumbles his way through charged political times. Despite this, O’Connor is so magnetic on screen that it’s just about impossible not to like him.But it’s not just the way he elevates sleazeballs and losers into undeniably watchable men (although that doesn’t hurt). O’Connor has shown a propensity to play traditionally enchanting as well. In La Chimera, from Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher, he’s cool, sleek, and morally gray in a movie that may be the blueprint for what his Bond could potentially look like. He’s got a likable way about him that’s different from some of the manly men (like Connery), sleek operators (like Brosnan), or rugged action stars (like Craig) who’ve played the role before; His charm is distinctly more modern, oozing from nothing other than being a guy who knows how to talk to people, and do it really well.NEONO’Connor in La Chimera. O’Connor’s quirks and oddities, may, at first glance, be what seems to make him an unfit choice to play Bond. But the key is to look at O’Connor’s unique look and gifts as a feature rather than a bug. People might say Bond needs to look this way, and sound that way, and otherwise it doesn’t work. But for anyone who feels so strongly about that, there’s good news: There are 25 other canonical James Bond movies (plus 1967’s Casino Royale and 1983’s Never Say Never Again) where he almost always looks and behaves just like that. When better than now to try something new? Daniel Craig’s blond hair and untraditional look were also questioned at first, and it’s safe to say that risk turned out pretty well in the end.The forthcoming Bond movie has Denis Villeneuve signed on as director, and Villeneuve has pretty much never failed when it comes to casting his movies. Can you imagine anyone other than Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides in his Dune movies? It seems like an obvious pick now, but the 30-year-old Oscar nominee had only just begun to break out when he was cast in the role back in 2018. Villeneuve has a clear eye for talent, and so it won’t be much of a stretch to trust in whoever ultimately lands the job—but it’s hard to not be excited about a director of his caliber linking up with an actor as ambitious and high-reaching as O’Connor.Plus, it’s worth noting that the Bond franchise isn’t quite like other mega-series out there. Since the Craig era began with 2006’s Casino Royale, Bond movies have come out on average every three or four years. That’s spread out enough for O’Connor to continue taking on fun, exciting projects even outside of the role as everyone’s favorite super spy.Gareth Cattermole//Getty ImagesThe other choices aren’t bad. Callum Turner gets a bad rap after his appearance in One Night Only, but he’s shown promise in projects like Green Room and Masters of the Air, and Apple TV’s new Neuromancer looks good. Jack Lowden has only played one of television’s most beloved spies for six seasons on Slow Horses—the fit would be seamless. Whoever Villeneuve picks (even if it’s the unnamed mystery actor) will be afforded a huge amount of goodwill.But isn’t the fact that O’Connor elicits such a reaction—consistently in his on-screen roles and through the mere idea of him becoming James Bond—proof that he’s the right pick?Evan is the culture editor for Men's Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn't.