Tom Hardy Is Interested In Being James Bond In A New Movie Where Christopher Nolan Would Direct

Esquire – In an interview with The Daily Beast, Tom kept it coy when asked about whether he’d be up for the job of Bond—and by ‘coy’ we mean all but admitting it without actually admitting it.

“You know, there’s a saying amongst us in the fraternity of acting, and in the fellowship of my peer group, that if you talk about it you’re automatically out of the race,” he explained. “So I can’t possibly comment on that one! If I mention it, it’s gone.”

But if there’s one thing that’ll clinch it for Tom, it’s The Dark Knight’s Christopher Nolan in the director’s chair.

Admitting a Nolan-directed Bond movie would be “so cool,” Tom said:

“I wonder what the next installment of that franchise would become, and I think when you mention someone like Christopher Nolan, that’s a very powerful figure to bring into that world who could bring something new and create something profound—again.”

The rumor mill on who’ll be the next James Bond has been working for over a year since Daniel Craig shit all over the franchise and made clear he doesn’t want to come back. We’ve seen Idris Elba as a frontrunner which I was in on (but a Bond book author was not), Tom Hiddleston as a frontrunner I was not in on, and now Tom Hardy. And from where I sit as someone who actually got college credits learning about James Bond, I love the pick. He’s not only proven he can carry and reinvigorate franchises, he’s been a bad ass dude in countless shows and movies, he’s reinvigorated another franchise in Mad Max, and he can play the wounded killer that is Bond just like he’s doing on the new FX show Taboo right now. He even loves the shit out of dogs if they want to steal some tropes from another recent iconic action movie in John Wick:

I mean he’s just a perfect James Bond in every way, right down to how he’s closer in line with Bond creator Ian Fleming’s original vision for the character as a dark, brutish, stout guy instead of the dolled up debonair character he ended up being in many film incarnations. And if Tom Hardy’s relationship with Christopher Nolan and Nolan’s own self-professed interest in doing a Bond movie lines up, that’s an easy home run for the producers and viewers. Rumors are that they were willing to throw upwards of $150 million at Daniel Craig for one more Bond movie from him but I’d invest every penny and then some in a Hardy/Nolan pairing over that 100 times out of 100.

Bonus points if Hardy breaks out the Bane voice even for a second. Dark Knight Rises is still my least favorite Christopher Nolan Batman movie but my fondness for the Bane voice has only grown since it came out, most fun impression to attempt when alone or in a judgment free zone: