James Bond Role Reportedly Offered to Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been one of the principal frontrunners to become the 7th James Bond actor for some time now. The English actor has appeared in many large productions including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Godzilla and Kick-Ass, which have all added to his action-packed résumé. Taylor-Johnson is interested in landing the gig too, telling Numéro magazine as recently as last week that he finds it “charming and wonderful that people see me in the role of James Bond.”

Now a new story is claiming that Taylor-Johnson has in fact been formally offered the role, albeit a story from British tabloid The Sun. Allegedly, their insider source heard that EON’s offer is on the table and they’re expecting the actor to “sign his contract in the coming days.” The source also confirmed a script was being worked on and filming for Bond 26 is planned to begin later this year.

These bold revelations come as a complete surprise, however. After all, it was only this time last month that producer Barbara Broccoli told the press that “nothing is happening yet.” This makes it hard to believe that the story has any truth to it. Especially if the writers have just started penning the Bond 26 script there is little to no chance that production will start earlier than 2025.

Other news outlets have already chimed in with comments from their own sources as well. Deadline’s source at EON declined to respond to The Sun’s story, since this type of speculation is all too common. However, the source interestingly didn’t outright deny the story either. Another production insider told BBC News that there’s “no truth in the rumours” at all. The Telegraph had the same to say on the story’s validity and added that people close to Taylor-Johnson insist that he’s not been cast.

Ultimately, this story is nothing more than a rumour at this point in time. So before we hear any potential developments this week, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s casting has to be taken with a very large pinch of salt particularly since it originated from The Sun. To learn more about source credibility and fact-checking feel free to read our guide.

Sources: Numéro, The Sun, Deadline, BBC, The Telegraph