Three years since No Time to Die ended the Daniel Craig era, there’s still no sign of the next 007 film. Late 2026, at the earliest. Maybe 2027.
Perhaps even 2028. You’re reading this because you want to know about the next James Bond film: the one that will pick up where the Daniel Craig series left off , and introduce a brand new 007. But the above dates – the British film industry’s current best guesses as to when we’ll actually see the thing, as shared with me by a senior talent representative last weekend – is, for now, about all there is to know.
There is no script, no title, not even a director – though I’m told a small number of contenders have been summoned to Eon Productions’ London HQ for what has been described as “a first round of speed dates”. No setting has been chosen, no source material selected, from the Ian Fleming novels or elsewhere. There’s obviously no singer for the title theme either, though that hasn’t inhibited the bookies: you can get 10/3 odds on Dua Lipa or Lady Gaga ; 5/1 on Lana Del Rey or this year’s Brit Award-winning Raye.
Most crucially of all – despite regular claims to the contrary – 007 himself has yet to be recruited. If Blofeld strikes in the next 24 months, we’re basically doomed. Should we be worried? “Not unduly,” says Professor James Chapman of the University of Leicester, and author of Licence To Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films .
If 2027 proves correct, Bond 26 will arrive.