Pierce Brosnan Would Totally Play James Bond Again, Y’Know, if They Asked Him To

It’s inevitable that a new James Bond actor will be announced soon. Denis Villeneuve is directing, Steven Knight is writing, and Amazon is eager to get its big-ticket IP back into theaters. But what if those rumors of a younger star (Jacob Elordi, Harris Dickinson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson… take your pick among the names being tossed around) are just misdirection—and the studio decides to bet on a sure thing, skewing way older than Ian Fleming ever imagined for his signature character?

It’s a long shot, admittedly. But Pierce Brosnan, who played Bond in four movies (GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day), says he’s up for the challenge. Speaking to the Radio Times, the 72-year-old actor had a good-natured reaction to being asked if he thought the time was right for “a senior citizen 007.â€

“My wife Keely [Shaye Smith] and I have been listening to the drumbeat of expectation of who’s going to be the next James Bond,†he said. “There are many great candidates out there, and I’m sure they’re going to make it a spectacle of delight. I don’t think anyone wants to see a craggy, 72-year-old Bond, but if [next 007 director Denis] Villeneuve had something up his sleeve I would look at it in a heartbeat. Why not? It’s great entertainment. It could be lots of laughs. Bald caps, prosthetics… who knows?â€

The oldest Bond to date: Roger Moore, who was 58 when he starred in 1985’s A View to a Kill. While you can feel confident that Amazon is going to go in a different direction—by casting an actor in his late 20s, not early 70s—an elderly secret agent tale does sound like “a spectacle of fun†in its own way. Even if he’s not playing Bond in name, we could definitely see Brosnan stepping back into a similar role with, as he suggests, a more comedic flavor built in.

Who’s your top pick for the next James Bond? Let us know in the comments below.

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