Pierce Brosnan predicts next James Bond will be a 'Total Unknown'

Pierce Brosnan believes that the studios may ultimately bypass every name currently circulating in James Bond casting speculation and cast someone entirely unfamiliar to audiences. 

"I have no desire to see myself in Bond. I'm just a member of the audience now awaiting the next Bond and wishing him well," Brosnan told The Times in an interview published Friday. 

"There are lots of good hats in the ring. Lots of great actors. I see it. I follow it. They could probably just go left-field and pick someone that none of us know about."

Pressed on whether he had a personal favourite, the 73-year-old, who played Bond in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day, declined to name anyone specific, citing pressure from his wife to stay quiet. 

"I wouldn't pick anyone. My wife told me not to say anything and I've said too much. Because once I say something, it goes [everywhere] and I get hanged." 

Despite staying tight-lipped publicly, Brosnan apparently wasn't shy in private, his Thursday Murder Club co-star Tom Ellis revealed that Brosnan personally told him he'd "make a good Bond." 

Ellis, known for Lucifer and currently promoting the spy drama CIA, responded to the compliment with characteristic modesty, joking that he felt he was likely "too old now" for the role.

Auditions for the untitled 26th Bond film, to be directed by Denis Villeneuve, have reportedly been underway since the summer, with names including Jack Lowden, Callum Turner, Jacob Elordi, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Harris Dickinson continuing to circulate as frontrunners, though none has been officially confirmed by the studio.