George Clooney Names His Pick for the Next James Bond

George Clooney is endorsing his pick for the next James Bond.

After Amazon MGM Studios announced last month that the search for the next headliner of the Bond franchise was underway, Clooney, 65, revealed that his choice for the new 007 was none other than his former collaborator, Callum Turner.

"I hope Callum ends up being the next Bond," Clooney told The Hollywood Reporter of Turner, whom he directed in 2023's The Boys in the Boat, in an interview published on Thursday, June 10. "I think he would be a great Bond. He's tall and handsome and charming and British, so he's the perfect guy to do it."

Turner isn't an unpopular choice for director Denis Villeneuve's new leading man, but the 36-year-old insisted he's had no conversations about taking up the mantle from Daniel Craig.

"I'll tell you what's so funny about the Bond thing: Even your best friends ask you, people text you that you haven't spoken to for 10 years - and you know nothing!" Turner told THR. "It's such a weird thing of something happening and nothing happening at all. I genuinely know nothing. I just find it quite amusing."

Another longtime Bond favorite, Idris Elba, also insisted that he wasn't in the running for the MI6 spy during a recent interview with British GQ.

"I've always felt that it's not a realistic thing," he told the outlet in a profile published on Monday, June 8. "James Bond was written how he was written for a reason. But I was complimented by it. And also, I think, in realistic terms, some markets just don't go for that. Bond is big all over the world. And [audiences] won't [all] go for a Black male, an African male, playing Bond. That's not what they like in their culture. Period."

"Bond is so unrealistic, so a hint of reality is good, but let's not try and make it woke," he continued. "I think you've got to be pure to what it is: escapism. Don't try and answer the world's taste. Just be Bond."

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This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 10:08 AM.