So this story came out a few days ago, but I just saw it for the first time today. A British sports book named Richard Madden, who is best known for playing Robb Stark in Game of Thrones, as the odds-on favorite to replace Daniel Craig as the next James Bond. The odds listed are as follows:
-Madden, 5/4
-Tom Hiddleston, 6-1
-Idris Elba, 6-1
-Tom Hardy, 12-1
-James Norton, 12-1
-Sam Heughan, 12-1
-Aidan Turner, 12-1
-Any female actor, 16-1
-Cillian Murphy, 20-1
-Michael Fassbender, 20-1
-Jack Huston, 20-1
-Daniel Kaluuya, 25-1
I have a few thoughts about this list of names. I’m not sure that Madden is the best choice to play Bond. For me, he doesn’t quite have the right mix of good looks and suave-yet-dark personality. If I had to pick one name from that list that best exemplifies Bond, it would be Idris Elba, but I don’t see that happening on account of how many people would be annoyed about a black guy playing the role. The same goes for the “any female actor” option: choosing a woman to play Bond would ruffle too many feathers for the producers of the film to think it was worth it.
At the end of the day, while Madden wouldn’t be my first choice to play James Bond, I think he could end up doing a good job. He was very good in Game of Thrones, and he starred in the BBC series Bodyguard as an Afghanistan vet and bodyguard. I haven’t watched Bodyguard at all, but it’s been very well-received by critics, so it would be interesting to see what Madden would do as Bond.
SURPRISE! You’re dead, Robb!
ReJoyce 