The mega A-list star Cillian Murphy has been tipped to play a villain in the upcoming James Bond movie, which will be the first since Amazon took control of the franchise.
While Jeff Bezos has the sort of money and space program you'd expect of a Bond villain, he's now 007's boss as Amazon Studios have taken 'creative control'.
One of the most lucrative properties in cinematic history is now theirs and presumably they're going to make more Bond movies, and that means they need both a new 007 and a dastardly villain for him to go up against.
According to The Sun, the bookies are tipping Irish actor Cillian Murphy to lend his considerable charisma to the role of the villain with 9/2 odds that he'll get to be the bad guy.
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The likes of Billions star Paul Giamatti (11/2) and Dune actor David Dastmalchian (13/2) are also tipped as potential performers of perfidy, but it's Murphy who the bookies reckon will have some sort of evil plot that needs foiling through the medium of James Bond shooting people and driving an Aston Martin.
Cillian Murphy's past roles
Where do you want to start? The Irish actor has an impressive filmography and won an Oscar for his leading role in Oppenheimer.
He's been featured in several of Christopher Nolan's projects including Inception, Dunkirk, and The Dark Knight Trilogy, while plenty of TV fans will know him as Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders.
Yonks ago, we also saw him as zombie apocalypse survivor Jim in 28 Days Later, and he's meant to be coming back for the new movies.
People initially mistook Murphy for that one zombie from the 28 Years Later trailer, but it was later confirmed not to be him and director Danny Boyle said everyone was 'standing by' for the green light to make the third 28 Years Later movie.
All in all it's been an incredibly successful career, so might a Bond villain role be beckoning?
Who will be the next James Bond?
That's still unconfirmed, since Amazon have not yet trotted out their new 007, nor announced further details on the next Bond film which one might expect them to do if they had those ducks in a row.
No Time To Die released in 2021, and two years later, Bond producers said they hadn't started the casting process to replace Daniel Craig.
However, there are several names that keep being mentioned with the role, and a lot will depend on what Amazon wants from the next iteration of the spy.
Is the next Bond going to be a younger, fresher face or someone older and more experienced?
According to the bookies, Bullet Train star Aaron Taylor-Johnson is still the odds-on favourite to become the next 007, with Theo James of The Gentlemen and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s Henry Cavill also considered likely picks.
Cillian Murphy is actually among those who have been mentioned for the part, with former Bond Pierce Brosnan saying last year that he would be 'magnificent' as 007, but at 49 it'd likely need a vision of an older Bond for him to get the part.
When is the next James Bond movie coming out?
There are claims that Amazon plans to get the next 007 film on screens in 2027, which would be leaving a six year gap between it and No Time To Die and tie for the longest wait fans have had to put up with.
The waiting time from 1989 to 1995 between Licence to Kill and GoldenEye and the gap between 2015's SPECTRE and 2021's No Time To Die are the current longest waits we've had to the next Bond movie.
They'd need to get a move on if they don't want to keep fans waiting.
Topics: Amazon, Cillian Murphy, Film, James Bond, TV and Film, Entertainment
Joe Harker