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Jack Lowden’s former Slow Horses co-star Nick Mohammed has thrown doubt on speculation that the Scottish star could be cast as the next 007.
Among the names being touted to replace Daniel Craig and don the spy’s tuxedo, Lowden is currently the bookies’ favourite. Other actors in contention are thought to be Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi and Emma’s Callum Turner.
But Ted Lasso and Celebrity Traitors star Mohammed, who appeared in season five of Slow Horses as a suave London mayor, has said he doesn’t think the rumours of Lowden being cast are true, even though he would love them to be.
When asked in a Telegraph interview whether Lowden is the next Bond, Mohammed laughed and said: “Like I would know, but also I just suspect not… We’ve been talking about it loads, actually. I would love it to be true. I sort of don’t think it is.”
He added: “I’d heard rumours – as everyone heard rumours – that it was going to be a younger Bond, that they wanted someone possibly more in their late twenties rather than in their thirties. So we’ll see.”
Lowden plays hapless spy River Cartwright in the Apple TV thriller Slow Horses, which is currently in its sixth season.
His other co-star on the show, Gary Oldman, recently threw his support behind Lowden being cast as 007.
But the author of a new James Bond book, Charlie Higson, said he does not believe Lowden would make a convincing Bond.
“I like him,” he said, “but it’s like when Tom Hiddleston was in the running – not a convincing hand-to-hand fighter.”
“With Daniel Craig you can believe him kicking the s*** out of someone,” he told The Times. “And you’ve got to believe that with Bond.”
In an interview with The Independent earlier this year, the former Bond casting director Debbie McWilliams – who cast Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton and Craig in the role – said the actor who plays 007 should have an air of mystery. “It is absolutely essential that [Bond] retains a total enigma,” adding: “I don’t want to see [a famous face] as Bond because we now know so much about them.
“We want to know as little about them personally as possible, because that’s what spies are… He’s licensed to kill, and we have to believe that he can do that. If you don’t, then you’ve lost the audience.”
The next Bond film, which will be the first since the franchise came under the control of Amazon, will be directed by Dune’s Denis Villeneuve. Peaky Blinders’ writer Steven Knight is overseeing the script, and recently hinted that the new Bond has already been chosen.
Nina Gold is attached to the next film as casting director. Gold’s casting credits include Game of Thrones, The Crown, and a certain Apple TV drama called Slow Horses…
