“Casino Royale” director Martin Campbell revealed in a new interview with Express UK that Henry Cavill could have been James Bond had Daniel Craig not earned the role of 007 in his 2006 franchise reboot. The film reinvigorated the Bond franchise after Pierce Brosnan’s divisive “Die Another Day” in 2002, and it kicked off Craig’s acclaimed tenure as Bond. As for Cavill, Campbell had nothing but raves for the Superman actor’s audition.
“He looked great in the audition. His acting was tremendous,” Campbell said. “And look, if Daniel didn’t exist, Henry would have made an excellent Bond. He looked terrific, he was in great physical shape…very handsome, very chiseled. He just looked a little young at that time back then.”
Despite Cavill’s fantastic audition, Campbell said he was not “favoring Henry” over Craig for the role.
“The way they work with Bond, and it’s pretty terrific, is when they decide on the actor and you audition — in our case, it was eight people — it’s very democratic,” Campbell said. “You sit around a table, eight or nine of you. It was myself and the producers, casting director, etc. And you go through the eight people and you put your hand up as you talk through each person and ultimately everybody has to be unanimous in their decision, if you see what I mean.”
With Craig’s Bond tenure over following the release of “No Time to Die,” the search for a new Bond actor will begin. Does that mean the 40-year-old Cavill should be back in the mix?
“By the time Daniel got to [‘No Time To Die’], really he was at an age where one more would have been too old for him,” Campbell said. “I know with Pierce he had to sign on to three when we did him. So that’s going to take, what, six years of your life maybe? I suspect Daniel [had] the same deal. And the next guy’s going to have to do that.”
“Henry’s 40, so by the time he’s done the third one he’s going to be 50 and anything beyond that’s two, three years per Bond,” the director added. “He’s in good shape Henry, he’s a good guy. He did very well in the audition, but ironically he was too young.”
The decision to ultimately cast Craig in “Casino Royale” did not receive unanimous praise. As longtime Bond casting director Debbie McWilliams told Entertainment Weekly back in 2021, she “felt sorry” for Craig after his casting led to extreme blowback from press who thought Craig didn’t fit the part of Bond.
“It was unbelievably negative, I have to say,” McWilliams said about the reaction to Craig’s casting. “The press response was awful and I felt so sorry for him, but in a funny kind of a way I think it almost spurred him on to do his damndest to prove everybody wrong.”
“The whole way through the film, stuff would come out about [how] he couldn’t walk and talk, he couldn’t run, he couldn’t drive a car properly, so much stuff which was completely and utterly untrue,” she continued. “And he just kept his head down, got on with the job and then the film came out and everybody went, ‘Oh wow, I think we quite like him after all.’”
There’s currently no timeline in place for when the next James Bond actor will be announced.
