The hunt for the new James Bond is heating up, with Jack Barton (SAS: Rogue Heroes), Jack Lowden (Slow Horses), Callum Turner (Masters of the Air), Jacob Elordi (The Dog Stars), Paul Mescal (Gladiator II), and Harris Dickinson (Babygirl) among those reportedly in the mix.
Now, though, Mail Online is reporting that Amazon MGM Studios is eyeing Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Dune: Part Three star Florence Pugh to lead her own spin-off, The Moneypenny Diaries.
It's unclear whether she would also play Moneypenny in the new James Bond movies, though it seems likely given that Amazon is eager to create a slate of projects set in the world of 007. The Moneypenny Diaries would reportedly be a TV series for Prime Video.
The Moneypenny Diaries is a trilogy of officially authorised James Bond novels written by Samantha Weinberg under the pseudonym Kate Westbrook, putting M's secretary firmly in the spotlight for the first time.
The books reimagine Miss Moneypenny as Jane Vivian Moneypenny, a woman with her own history, ambitions and secrets, while also filling in some gaps in Ian Fleming's original Bond continuity.
The first book, The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel, takes place in 1962 against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis and explores what was happening inside MI6 while Bond was dealing with his own demons following the events of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
The subsequent novels, Secret Servant and Final Fling, continue Moneypenny's story while incorporating real Cold War events and figures, including the Cambridge spy scandal. Interestingly, the series was initially presented as if these were genuine diaries discovered after Moneypenny's death, with Weinberg even adopting the Kate Westbrook persona for publicity before the ruse was exposed.
Recent James Bond movies and the First Light video game portrayed Moneypenny as a far more proactive character than just a secretary, so it would make sense to put the spotlight on her in a project like this. Of course, if it is a prequel, then a different, older actress may take on the role in a spin-off TV series.
Pugh is no stranger to action after jumping off the Merdeka 118 tower in Malaysia for Thunderbolts*. "It was in the script, and then slowly as we got closer and closer to shooting, they were like, 'Yeah, we don’t think it’s gonna happen, it’s just gonna be a crazy insurance ordeal, and obviously we’re not going to throw FP off the second-tallest building in the world,'" she previously said of the stunt.
"I was like, 'What the f**k, of course we are. We have to do that!'" Pugh continued. "So I was being a sassy Karen just emailing Kevin and being like, 'Kevin, this is going to do wonders for the press tour, we have to do this!'"
Stay tuned for updates on this latest Bond rumour as we have them.