Amy Pascal, the producer overseeing Amazon MGM’s James Bond franchise, said the studio is likely to reveal the name of the next actor to play 007 by the end of 2026, more than a year after Daniel Craig’s run as the spy officially ended.

The end of the year is a good bet, Pascal said, according to World of Reel, adding that the production team is being really, really methodical about the search. The next Bond film will be directed by Denis Villeneuve, the filmmaker behind Dune, from a script written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.

Pascal and David Heyman, the producer known for the Harry Potter franchise, were brought on by Amazon MGM Studios to oversee development of the twenty-sixth entry in the official Bond series. Amazon MGM took full creative control of the franchise in 2025 after longtime custodians Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson stepped back from day-to-day producing duties, ending a family stewardship of the series that dated back to the 1960s.

Describing the approach to casting, Pascal said the new Bond needs to be something really different that is stirring and exciting and different. The producers have said they are deliberately taking their time before naming a successor to Craig, whose five films as Bond concluded with 2021’s No Time to Die, in order to find an actor who can carry the weight of more than six decades of the character’s history.

Casting director Nina Gold has been running auditions for the role, and Villeneuve, Pascal and Heyman recently notified a group of actors that they have advanced to the next round of testing. Those tests are expected to take place in August, according to reports.

No name has been publicly confirmed for the role. Fans and trade press have speculated about a range of possible candidates in recent months, though the production team has not commented on any specific actor under consideration.