Robert Pattinson Reportedly Screen-Tested for James Bond as the 007 Casting Race Tightens

Robert Pattinson has reportedly screen-tested for James Bond, and the report has turned what looked like a search for a rising star into one that now includes the actor who currently plays Batman. The Hollywood Reporter said on Friday evening, citing multiple sources, that the 40-year-old Pattinson tested for the role of 007 in London during the weekend of October 24, making him the most famous name yet to surface in Amazon MGM Studios’ hunt for the next Bond.

Pattinson joins Callum Turner, Jack Lowden and Josh O’Connor, the three actors who had previously been linked to final screen tests. According to the report, he was the fourth of a possible five actors to test, and Nicholas Hoult has also been named as a contender, although that part of the report is less firm. Amazon MGM Studios has not commented, and nothing has been confirmed about who will succeed Daniel Craig in the role.

• The Hollywood Reporter says Robert Pattinson screen-tested for James Bond in London the weekend of October 24
• He joins Callum Turner, Jack Lowden and Josh O’Connor, with Nicholas Hoult also reported as a contender
• Denis Villeneuve, who directed Pattinson in Dune: Part Three, is directing Amazon MGM Studios’ first Bond film from a script by Steven Knight
• Amazon MGM has not commented, and no casting has been confirmed
• Production is expected to begin in 2027, with a theatrical release reportedly planned for 2028

What The Hollywood Reporter reported

The Hollywood Reporter’s account says the screen tests took place in London over the weekend of October 24, the same period in which earlier reports had placed the final round of auditions. The trade had previously reported that four, possibly five, actors were in contention for the part but only three names had surfaced at the time. Pattinson’s name was the surprise, because most coverage of the process had assumed that Amazon would choose a relatively unknown actor, or at least someone who was not already the face of a major franchise.

The location matters to the story. Pattinson is currently filming The Batman Part II in London, and World of Reel reported that he was able to take a break from the production to do the test while the shoot was paused. The same outlet reported that Villeneuve, a friend of the actor, asked him to come in. Those details have not been confirmed by Amazon, and the studio declined to comment on the screen tests.

The Hollywood Reporter also noted that conventional wisdom has been against casting a world-famous Bond, but that these are “unprecedented times in the franchise.” It is the first Bond movie to be made since Amazon took creative control of the series from the Broccoli family in February 2025, and the first since Craig’s farewell in No Time to Die in 2021.

Who else is in the running

The shortlist now looks like a mix of rising names and established stars. Callum Turner, who recently starred in One Night Only, has been described as a top contender for months. Jack Lowden is best known for playing the bumbling MI6 spy River Cartwright in Slow Horses, a role that already places him inside the spy genre. Josh O’Connor, who appeared with Craig in the third Knives Out film, Wake Up Dead Man, is the third name that had been reported before this week.

Every Movie Plug charted the reported shortlist on October 25 in Who Will Be the Next James Bond? Casting Reportedly Narrows to a Short List. At that stage the reports disagreed on the names: World of Reel had pointed to Jacob Elordi, while The Hollywood Reporter said Elordi and Jack O’Connell would not be testing. Deadline’s count of four test offers, to Lowden, Turner, O’Connor and one unnamed actor, is the one that Pattinson’s name now appears to fill.

Nicholas Hoult is the more complicated entry. Variety reports that he and Pattinson were among the stars who tested, and Deadline said that its reports on both Pattinson and Hoult were not confirmed. The Hollywood Reporter had said on October 28 that Hoult was not the unnamed fourth actor holding a test offer, which makes his reported inclusion a development that remains unsettled. Hoult plays Lex Luthor in DC Studios’ Superman films, returns in 2027’s Man of Tomorrow, and was the runner-up to Pattinson when Matt Reeves cast The Batman.

Other names have circulated around the edges of the process. Variety reported that Harry Styles has had discussions about the part and that Theo James has not been ruled out. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicholas Galitzine, Tom Holland, Jonathan Bailey, Dev Patel and Taron Egerton have all been mentioned in earlier rumors. According to one report, Jacob Elordi and Jack O’Connell are not expected to test.

The Denis Villeneuve connection

Villeneuve is the clearest link between Pattinson and the job. The filmmaker is directing the new Bond movie, and he has just completed Dune: Part Three with Pattinson in the cast. That film is scheduled to open on December 18, and the collaboration is said to have gone well for both men. In a casting process where the director’s confidence in an actor carries a great deal of weight, a recent working relationship is a considerable advantage. Readers planning around the film’s opening can use the Dunesday Survival Guide, which explains how to approach the weekend when Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday open on the same Friday.

Pattinson’s history with spy cinema adds to that. He played the mysterious ally Neil in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in 2020, a globe-trotting espionage thriller that borrowed heavily from the Bond tradition, and World of Reel has described that film as something close to an audition reel in hindsight. The comparison is informal, but it reflects how many commentators now see his recent roles.

Amazon MGM Studios’ new era for Bond

Amazon MGM Studios has built the production in order. Villeneuve is directing, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is writing the screenplay for the 26th film, Amy Pascal and David Heyman are producing, and Nina Gold is overseeing casting. The first round of auditions reportedly took place in August, the shortlist and test offers came together in September, and the tests ran from late October into November.

Production is expected to begin in 2027 and a theatrical release is reportedly planned for 2028, although the film has no official title or release date. The studio has not said when it will announce its choice. Some outlets have pointed to a decision before the end of 2026, and one report suggested that an announcement could come around Thanksgiving. Both timelines remain unconfirmed. Producer Amy Pascal said in August that the end of the year was a good bet for an announcement and described the process as methodical, a comment covered in Every Movie Plug’s earlier casting report.

The search itself has been running for months. Reports indicate that casting for the next Bond began in May, which means the screen tests are the closing stage of a process that has lasted roughly half a year. TheWrap has noted that the intense interest in the casting rumors reflects the staying power of a franchise that is now 64 years old, dating back to Dr. No in 1962. Craig played the character across five films between 2006 and 2021, and the studio now has to launch a new actor into a series that has been off screen for five years. His fourth outing, Spectre, opened in the United States on November 6, 2015 and went on to earn $880.7 million worldwide, a production story told in Today in Cinema, November 6: Spectre Opens in America in 2015 and Takes Bond From Mexico City to a Sahara Crater.

Amazon also intends to build more around the character than a single film. TheWrap reports that the company wants to develop a wider universe of programming around the franchise, which raises the stakes for the first movie. A lead who can anchor several films, and the stories that may surround them, is a practical requirement as well as a creative one, and it is the reason scheduling and long-term availability keep appearing in coverage of the shortlist.

How Pattinson’s age compares with past Bonds

At 40, Pattinson would be among the older actors to start in the role in recent decades, and he is the oldest of the reported contenders. Turner, Lowden, O’Connor and Hoult are all 36. Even so, his age would not be unprecedented for the franchise. Sean Connery was 32 when Dr. No opened in 1962, and George Lazenby was 30 for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Roger Moore was 45 in Live and Let Die, Timothy Dalton was 41 for The Living Daylights, Pierce Brosnan was 42 in GoldenEye, and Daniel Craig was 38 when Casino Royale arrived in 2006. Brosnan’s debut is the closest precedent for a franchise restart after a long gap, and Every Movie Plug explains how it modernized the series in How GoldenEye Saved James Bond.

The larger question the report raises is one of profile rather than age. The previous actors to take the part were established but were not holding up their own franchises at the moment of their casting. Pattinson, by contrast, is one of the most recognizable actors of his generation and is the lead of DC’s Batman series, which may continue for years. Several outlets have noted that the studio would need to decide whether it wants that level of fame at the center of a new Bond era or would prefer to introduce a lesser-known face.

A career that points toward 007

Pattinson, who was born in London in 1986, began acting as a teenager in a local theater club and first reached a wide audience as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005. His starring role as Edward Cullen in the Twilight films made him a global star, and he then deliberately moved toward independent and auteur cinema with work such as Good Time and Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse. Those performances changed how critics saw him and led to his casting in Tenet and then The Batman in 2022. Nolan’s approach to blockbuster filmmaking is one of five examined in Five Directors, Five Visions: The Signature Styles of Hollywood’s Defining Filmmakers, and the way stars rebuild their careers after a breakout franchise is the subject of Every Movie Plug’s Actor Spotlight profiles of Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.

His 2026 has been unusually busy. He appears in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, in The Drama, in Primetime, which screened at the BFI London Film Festival in October, and in Dune: Part Three next month. He also starred in Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 in 2025. That run, combined with his work as a producer through his company Icki Eneo Arlo, has made him a figure whom studios treat as both a box-office draw and a filmmaker-friendly collaborator.

How the report is being received

Reaction to the news has been strong because it cuts against the expected plan. World of Reel wrote that many observers assumed Amazon would pick a relative unknown, and called Pattinson the opposite of that profile. Forbes columnist Paul Tassi argued that Pattinson’s year and his direct link to Villeneuve make him a natural favorite, while also acknowledging that the studio must decide whether it wants a major star or a newer face. Comic Book Resources raised the other side of the question, pointing out that a Bond actor is expected to return for several films and that an actor with a busy slate could be reluctant to sign on for that long.

Variety framed the Pattinson and Hoult reports around the experience both actors bring to franchise filmmaking. Pattinson fronts DC Studios’ Batman series and is an alumnus of both Twilight and Harry Potter, while Hoult plays Lex Luthor in the Superman films and starred in the 2010s X-Men prequel trilogy. Hoult’s next release is the Amazon MGM Studios film How to Rob a Bank, which reaches theaters on November 13. Casting choices of this kind have shaped franchises before, and Every Movie Plug collects some of the most consequential in 10 Actors Who Turned Down Roles That Became Legendary.

The Batman Part II and the scheduling question

Scheduling is the obstacle most often mentioned. The new Bond is expected to commit to several films, and Pattinson already has The Batman Part II in production, with some talk that the Matt Reeves series could extend to a trilogy. That series sits outside the main DC Universe run by James Gunn, which means the two franchises would not be formally connected, but it does mean that one actor would be carrying two major commitments. Forbes has argued that he should be considered the favorite despite that complication, noting that Pattinson would not be testing if he did not want the part.

The same questions apply to Hoult, who is already tied to DC through Superman and Man of Tomorrow. James Gunn has recently discussed how DC is handling its own casting, including his comments that the DCU’s Batman is not cast yet but is close and that Man of Tomorrow is nearly cast, which Every Movie Plug covered in James Gunn on DC Casting. Amazon MGM will have to weigh how much a contender’s existing franchise commitments matter against the value of a recognizable lead, and it will have to do so while keeping the 2027 start date in view.

What happens next

Amazon MGM has not confirmed any of the screen tests, and the studio has not said who is the leading candidate. The most reliable expectation is that the casting announcement will arrive within weeks rather than months, since filming is slated for next year and the lead actor needs time to prepare for a physically demanding role. Until then, the reports remain unconfirmed and each new name should be treated as part of an evolving process.

Several practical points will shape the final decision. Amazon MGM Studios will have to confirm the availability of its chosen actor for a 2027 production window, agree on a multi-film commitment, and plan an announcement that introduces the new actor to a global audience. The studio has also not said whether the announcement will be accompanied by a title, a first look or a release date, so the casting reveal may arrive well ahead of any other official detail about the film.

The Bond casting story is also part of a wider run of franchise decisions across Hollywood. Every Movie Plug has been following Marvel’s official X-Men cast announcement and the report that Jeremy Allen White met with Marvel about the reboot, and recently covered Lionsgate’s decision to greenlight an animated John Wick prequel with Keanu Reeves. Interest in Bond’s past is running high as well, with a recent Propstore auction offering Daniel Craig’s Skyfall suit and Ana de Armas’s No Time to Die dress. Readers can find every new casting story in the Film News section and longer features on franchises and the actors who lead them in the articles section.

Quick answers