Stop the search; call off the dogs. Five years after Daniel Craig hung up the Walther PPK in No Time to Die, the search for the next James Bond has finally been given a deadline.
Speaking to Deadline this week, producer Amy Pascal (who now runs 007 alongside David Heyman following Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli's exit), put a number on what has otherwise been years of speculation.
"I would say the end of the year is a good bet," Pascal said when pressed on when fans could expect an announcement.
Now, it may not seem like a concrete confirmation – but considering we’ve been speculating about everything from who will direct the next era of Bond to who will end up donning the tux, largely inferring from less than a morsel of crumbs (perhaps strategically) dropped from the Amazon bosses since taking over the rights to the franchise, this most recent update from Pascal has given the newscycle a timely boost.
In fact, it’s the most direct answer anyone attached to the production has given so far.
Here’s what we know: Denis Villeneuve is behind the camera, while Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has the script. Bond will likely be an actor with smaller star power; he’s British and in his thirties. Beyond that, well, your guess is as good as ours.
"We are being really, really methodical," Pascal continued. "Having worked with Barbara Broccoli at the studio, I mean, Daniel Craig is a hard act to follow. And it's got to be something really different that is stirring and exciting and different."
Amazon MGM Studios confirmed back in June that the casting process was officially underway, with veteran casting director Nina Gold (Game of Thrones, The Crown, Conclave, Star Wars) as the driving force behind auditions.
Long before Callum Turner emerged as the bookmakers' favourite, the search had already thrown up one genuinely surprising contender: an unknown actor working a call centre job who reportedly screen-tested for the role, reading scenes from GoldenEye, a reminder that Amazon MGM's brief for "fresh face" may be more literal than anyone expected.
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Turner, probably still jetlagged after returning from his honeymoon with Dua Lipa, remains the name most consistently linked to 007, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson hasn't fully fallen out of the conversation either, despite the age and profile concerns that have dogged his candidacy.
Nothing is confirmed, and Pascal isn't tipping her hand either way. But with an end-of-year window now on record from the producer herself, the wait for an answer has never felt shorter.