While there has been a lot of speculation on who the next James Bond actor will be — ranging from Henry Cavill to Tom Hardy and even Tom Hiddleston — as it turns out, at this point nobody is actually being considered, which has completely to do with the fact that, according to producer Barbara Broccoli, we're in a stage where Bond is being "reinvented."'
"Nobody is in the running," revealed Broccoli, who was being honored with step-brother and fellow Bond producer Michael G. Wilson for their BFI Fellowships. "We're working out where to go with him, we're talking that through. There isn't a script and we can't come up with one until we decide how we're going to approach the next film, because, really, it's a reinvention of Bond. We're reinventing who he is and that takes time. I'd say that filming is at least two years away."
It's not known whether this "reinvention" is due to the fact that the character — SPOILERS — died at the conclusion of the 25th Bond film, No Time to Die, or because Broccoli and Wilson are trying to determine what direction they should take Bond in the modern world. They faced a similar challenge with Pierce Brosnan's debut as 007 in 1995's GoldenEye and Daniel Cragi's in 2006's Casino Royale, which was essentially a reboot of the series.
Undoubtedly part of what they're dealing with is that whereas there wa a time that Bond was the innovator, providing spectacle that nobody else in Hollywood could match, these days 007 is not only going up against franchise's like Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is constantly pushing the action envelope.
We're not sure when, but, as they say at the end of the credits for each film in the series, James Bond Will Return.