Zack Snyder’s 007? ‘It Would Be Cool to See a 20-Year Old James Bond…There Has to Be Something There,’ Says the Director

Zack Snyder has spent the last several years attempting to launch new IP for Netflix, be it his action zombie epic “Army of the Dead” or his new space opera franchise “Rebel Moon,” but the 57-year-old filmmaker is better known for putting his stamp on famed IP, from “Watchmen” to “Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Justice League.” Would he ever return to tackling a pre-existing franchise?

“I mean, like, how much IP is there?” Snyder recently said in an interview with The Atlantic before thinking of at least one bit of IP he might like to tackle one day.

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“It’d be cool to see, like, 20-year-old James Bond,” Snyder said. “The humble roots that he comes from. Whatever trauma of youth that makes you be able to be James Bond. There has to be something there.”

With Daniel Craig’s tenure as James Bond over following the 2021 release of “No Time to Die,” the franchise’s architects are currently figuring out how to reboot 007 for his next set of adventures. While Snyder is eager to explore a younger James Bond, that’s not a direction 007 producers are interested in. Rumors circulated last year that Tom Holland might be a contender to play young James Bond, but franchise producer Michael G. Wilson squashed such speculation by saying the next Bond would be a “30-something” actor, the same age as Craig when he debuted in 2006’s “Casino Royale.”

In an interview with Radio Times earlier this year, longtime Bond casting director Debbie McWilliams explained why younger actors usually don’t fit when it comes to finding a new James Bond.

“When we started, it was a slightly different feel,” McWilliams said about the last search for a new 007 that ended with Craig’s selection. “We did look at a lot of younger actors, and I just don’t think they had the gravitas. They didn’t have the experience, they didn’t have the mental capacity to take it on, because it’s not just the part they’re taking on, it’s a massive responsibility.”

Neither an actor nor a director has been announced for the next James Bond movie. Snyder’s latest original stab at IP is “Rebel Moon,” the first film of which is now available to stream on Netflix. A second installment will release in April 2024.

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