Slow Horses star Jack Lowden is in the race to be the next James Bond, according to the bookmakers.
The Scottish actor has made his mark playing spook River Cartwright in the acclaimed Apple TV Plus series, currently enjoying its third run.
As a "slow horse" River is an MI5 reject, who does his best to get back in with the bosses while battling against a sort of anti-M figure in Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman).
But Lowden has done his chances of playing 007 no harm at all by appearing in a show that's only grown in popularity and sees him carrying a gun in true James Bond fashion.
Lowden is now as short as 12-1 to be cast as the next James Bond, following the end of Daniel Craig's reign. At 33, Lowden would appear the right sort of age to take on the part. Craig was in his late 30s when he first appeared in Casino Royale and given how long the production cycle is on a Bond movie Lowden would be a similar age by the time of his debut if it were to happen.
While Lowden has shown his softer side as River, a spy with a heart who loves nothing more than a fireside chat with his grandad, he displayed he can also have a harder edge in BBC One hit The Gold.
That saw Lowden play notorious villain Kenneth Noye in the series about the real-life Brink's-Mat robbery.
Daniel Craig also did him a favor by clearly displaying that being fair-haired is no issue when it comes to playing Bond.
However, Bullet Train actor Aaron Taylor-Jonhson remains the favorite for the part. He's headed the betting market for some time, but it's not always the person at the top who ends up becoming the next 007.
As to when the next James Bond will come out it looks like being either 2025 or 2026. It now seems an age since 2021's No Time to Die saw Craig's tenure end controversially. Let's hope the gap won't be as long as that between Timothy Dalton's last outing in 1989's Licence to Kill and Pierce Brosnan's first appearance in 1995's GoldenEye.
Personally What to Watch reckons Lowden would make a great Bond!
