Gary Oldman Claims That James Bond Has Already Been Recast

Studios are hyper-protective about what’s going on in big IP movies and summer blockbusters, and it verges on being pretty silly. On the one hand, I understand wanting to keep as many secrets as you can to force people to see your movies in theaters. On the other hand, maybe if there was more attention spent on the films themselves and making sure that they were… quality, that wouldn’t be an issue. And I’m not even an “all big movies are trash” guy. But walking your actors from one soundstage to another in a cloak is not going to make people see your movie.

Regardless, that’s the way of things, and so it’s very funny to me that you have Gary Oldman out here sharing industry secrets in a way that will certainly get an Amazon executive (or maybe one of his Slow Horses co-stars) yelled at. Amazon has hired Denis Villeneuve to direct the next James Bond film, and the search has been underway to find someone to fill Daniel Craig’s old tux, a not-so-easy decision that many people have been curious about, with plenty of fan-casting making the rounds. But it’s all for naught, according to Oldman.

It’s been rumored that [Lowden] is on the shortlist,” the actor recently said on Canada’s The Morning Show (according to Variety). “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.” Before Lowden was mixing it up with Ella McCay, he was starring with Oldman on the Apple TV show Slow Horses, and Oldman is clearly a fan, but did he possibly just screw things up for his co-star?

There is a very decent chance that Oldman is just telling tales out of school. Perhaps he heard something, but he could just be revealing something he doesn’t have the full story of. That said, the man is 68 years old and has few f***s left to give, so he could know exactly what he’s talking about, not care if he says it, and maybe even be trying to give Lowden a boost. However, if Amazon was maybe considering the actor but didn’t want that news to get out there, it could bite him in the butt.

It’s not super likely that they cast Lowden, Oldman gave his “nod,” and then they decided not to cast him since he leaked the news to Oldman. However, there’s also a non-zero chance that that could happen. As I said, studios are super weird about what news gets out there and why. If they think Oldman is pointing at Lowden before they get the chance to control the announcement, and they think that’s Lowden’s fault, it could, at least, result in an annoying (and likely unpleasant) conversation. Or, hopefully, they just get over it.