Charlie Higson reveals actor he previously wanted as James Bond – and hopes next 007 is "unexpected"

Who will be the next James Bond remains one of the biggest unanswered questions in cinema – and 007 author Charlie Higson is hoping that whoever ultimately lands the role will take audiences by surprise.

A host of actors have been linked with succeeding Daniel Craig, who bowed out as Bond in 2021's No Time to Die, and Higson thinks several of the names being discussed could plausibly fit the role.

"I think most of the names that have come out have been interesting," he told Radio Times exclusively. "You can sort of see them as Bond."

There is, however, one regularly suggested candidate who particularly caught Higson's attention in the past: Happy Valley and House of the Dragon star James Norton.

"I was always a fan of James Norton," Higson revealed.

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But rather than throwing his weight behind Norton – or any of the other established names to have been linked with the part – Higson is now hoping the eventual choice might be someone audiences aren't expecting.

"I have no greater idea than anyone else who it's going to be, and I don't particularly have a favourite out of the names that have been bandied about," he said.

"I hope it will be someone unexpected that perhaps even we don't really know very much about."

One challenge facing the filmmakers, Higson suggested, is finding an actor at the right stage of their career to take on a role which could potentially dominate the next decade of their life.

"The problem is getting someone the right age who's going to be happy to sign on for 10 years or whatever of their life and think, 'All right, well, I will be Bond and that will take over my entire life for the foreseeable future.'"

He continued: "You need an actor of a certain level, a certain level of ambition, and you need an actor who's going to be willing to kind of be told what to do to a certain extent, and to fit within the machine, because doing any kind of long-running series thing is an interesting commitment and an interesting dynamic between the producers and the actors."

As for how old the new 007 should be when that commitment begins, Higson has a fairly specific range in mind. "I think you need to keep Bond quite young," he said. "I'd say ideally between 30 and 35."

Higson has himself recently faced the challenge of bringing James Bond into a new era.

His new novel King Zero places 007 firmly in the present day, beginning with the murder of an MI6 agent in the Saudi desert and sending Bond on a globe-spanning mission involving a suspected betrayal within British intelligence, a race to avert catastrophe and a mysterious new enemy wielding extraordinary power.

The book continues Higson's bestselling Young Bond novels and his 2023 adult Bond novella On His Majesty's Secret Service, and arrives as the screen incarnation of 007 also prepares for a fresh start.

For Higson, that shouldn't mean radically reworking the qualities that have sustained Bond for more than 60 years on screen. Instead, he would like the next film to rediscover some of the sheer entertainment value of the franchise.

"Like most die-hard Bond fans, I would like a return to a bit more of a sense of fun and escapist adventure," he said.

In particular, Higson pointed to Craig's first outing, 2006's Casino Royale, as the point where the films struck the tone he would like to see revisited.

"I think they got the balance exactly right in Casino Royale, and then sort of struggled to retain that, work out exactly what they'd done.

"You do hope that they don't get too angsty and introspective and worry too much about what people are saying online. Trying to please everyone is impossible. I think you've just got to stick to your guns and say, 'This is James Bond.'

"He is probably the greatest cinematic hero of all time, and people still like stories about heroes."

And while a new actor will inevitably bring a different interpretation to the role, Higson argued that the basic ingredients of the character don't need wholesale reinvention.

"That basic model of, here is a man who knows what he's doing, he knows what to do in any situation, and he will ultimately win and save everybody – you don't need to tinker with that."

King Zero by Charlie Higson is available to buy now.

For all the latest RT Book Club news, interviews, Q&As with the authors, reviews of previous books and more, visit The Radio Times Book Club.