Saoirse Ronan speaks out on rumours that husband Jack Lowden has been cast as next James Bond

Saoirse Ronan has addressed rampant speculation that her husband, Jack Lowden, is in line to play the next James Bond – but her response was decidedly relaxed.

Asked in a new Associated Press interview whether Lowden might be taking over 007, Ronan deflected with a joke about his most vocal supporter and Slow Horses co-star.

"Well, Gary Oldman thinks he's James Bond," she said, before claiming that the rumours barely register at home between the more mundane domestic tasks.

"[That's] its own thing. We're kind of getting on with our life, to be honest. We have plenty of other things to be dealing with. So, yeah, it's not really a subject that's coming up in our house," Ronan added.

"The dog needs to be walked, the dinner needs to be made, we're most focused on that".

Ronan was promoting her darkly comic thriller Bad Apples, where she plays a struggling school teacher who abducts a rebellious student.

The talk around Lowden gathered pace in September, when Oldman, who stars alongside him in the Apple TV spy drama Slow Horses, publicly backed the Scottish actor for the role.

"It's been rumoured that he's on the shortlist," Oldman told Canada-based outlet Global News. "We're going to find out pretty soon, aren't we? Because they have picked him.

"They have made their choice, but they have not announced it yet. So my fingers are crossed for Jack".

Oldman later rowed back on the certainty of those comments, clarifying that he was aware of a shortlist but did not actually know who had landed the part.

For her part, Ronan has also expressed interest in joining the iconic film franchise.

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She recently told Empire she would relish playing a Bond villain. "I want to go dark," she said. "I said that I wanted to be a Bond villain and I'm dead serious.

"I think it would be really interesting, having a young female villain," she continued.

"Especially for girls and women, to see someone who can just take all that pent-up anger and direct it somewhere, there's something interesting in that dramatically. So I would love to do more of that".

The next Bond film is being developed under Amazon MGM, with casting director Nina Gold (of Game of Thrones, The Crown and Star Wars) leading the search for the new 007.

The film is due to be directed by Dune's Denis Villeneuve, from a script by Peaky Blinders, House of Guinness and A Thousand Blows creator Steven Knight.

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Authors

David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.