Slow Horses star Jack Lowden finally addresses James Bond rumours

Jack Lowden has addressed rumours he’s in the running to be the next James Bond in aGQ interview published overnight (AEDT) but which took place in September, just days after an endorsement from his Slow Horses co-star Gary Oldman.

“It’s been rumoured that [Lowden] is on the shortlist,” Oldman said in an interview with Canada’s The Morning Show on September 7 (Canadian time). “We’re going to find out pretty soon, aren’t we? Because they have picked him. They have made their choice but they have not announced it yet. So my fingers are crossed for Jack.”

Following fevered media speculation, a few days later on September 11, Oldman appeared to hose down his comments during a session at the Toronto International Film Festival, Deadline reported.

“There’s six people on a shortlist. I heard a rumour that they’ve picked James Bond, but they haven’t announced it yet, which is their prerogative,” Oldman said. “So I do not know [who has got the part], but I’m hoping it’s Jack.”

However Oldman has never starred in a Bond film and is not otherwise explicitly involved in the franchise’s production, so it is unclear where his information was sourced, although one would assume he’d be well-connected.

Asked directly by GQ about Oldman’s comments and the ongoing rumours, Lowden said the speculation was “all very flattering”.

“It’s nice to be mentioned – for any role – and I’m just not really going to add to the noise,” the 36-year-old Scottish actor told the outlet. “It’s very nice, and Gary’s a sweetheart – it’s particularly lovely, coming from someone like him. But I don’t really listen to it.

“As a young male actor, generally, the minute you’re not playing a zany artist type, the minute you’re in a suit, people fling it at you,” he said.

Lowden will next appear as Mr Darcy in the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, however his name has been in the James Bond mix for some years, alongside Callum Turner, Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Jack Barton and Australia’s Jacob Elordi – who have already reportedly auditioned for the coveted role.

Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve is helming the next Bond instalment, which will be distributed by Amazon MGM after it secured ownership of the franchise from the Broccoli family in February 2025.

The last Bond film was the final Daniel Craig outing No Time to Die in 2021.

On Saturday (UK time) The Sun reported that Calum Turner appeared to be firming up as the next 007, citing evidence that he had stepped away from the production company he founded with pop star wife Dua Lipa last year.

And on Monday The Daily Mail reported that Turner had attended Amazon MGM’s Bray Studios in the English country of Berkshire for screen tests last Friday. It also claimed that Lipa was keen to record the next Bond theme.

However if Lowden did get the role, casting for other charcters in the next film could get interestng – in August Lowden’s wife, Irish actor Saoirse Ronan told Empire magazine she was keen to play a Bond villain.

“I want to go dark,” she said. “I said that I wanted to be a Bond villain and I’m dead serious … I think it would be really interesting having a young female villain.

“Especially for girls and women, to see someone who can just take all that pent-up anger and direct it somewhere, there’s something interesting in that dramatically. So I would love to do more of that.”