While HBO's Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon is filled with towering figures that are well on their way to becoming iconic in their own right, few are so immediately arresting as Aemond Targaryen, the one-eyed dragonrider played by Ewan Mitchell. Over the course of the first three seasons, Mitchell's quiet intensity has turned Aemond into the most recognizable villain of the series. So it's no surprise that he's being considered for other, equally large and nefarious roles as the show heads toward its fourth and final season.
According to a new rumor, Mitchell could play none other than one of the next Bond villains in the highly-anticipated James Bond film from Dune director Denis Villeneuve.
This news was first reported by The Sun (via NME), which claims that Mitchell impressed the producers behind the Bond franchise with his range of performances. If you've seen Mitchell in anything outside of House of the Dragon, that makes complete sense; just watch him as the quiet, lovable monk Osferth in The Last Kingdom if you want proof.
As always with these sorts of rumors, we have to give the warning to take it with a grain of salt until it's substantiated. NME believed some sort of announcement could come yesterday, since October 5 is "James Bond Day," owing to it being the date the original film Dr. No premiered on October 5, 1962. That obviously didn't pan out, so until we hear something official, we watch and we wait, and hope for good news for Mitchell.
Would Ewan Mitchell be a good fit for the new era of James Bond?
Part of what makes speculation about the new James Bond film so exciting is that we're truly entering into a new era for the character. Daniel Craig wrapped up his turn as the world's most famous spy in 2021 with No Time to Die, which, ironically, featured the death of Bond. But 007 was never going to stay dead. He's been recast multiple times over the years, and continuity between versions of Bond has never been something that the studio behind the films, Eon Productions, has ever been particularly worried about. That's just fine in my opinion; not everything needs a complicated, interlinked canon, and James Bond is pretty much the perfect example of when it's not necessary.
Since Craig's exit, there's been a long process of figuring out the character's future. In the interim, Eon's long-time partner MGM was bought by Amazon, which led to Amazon and Eon Productions forming a new deal to create Bond content. This caused even more delays as debates about moving Bond into the streaming market came and went. We still don't even know who's playing the super spy himself. Over the years names like Tom Holland, Taron Edgerton, Sam Heughan, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and more have been batted around, but none have yet panned out.
All this is to say, it's still early days for Villeneuve's Bond film. We don't know if it'll be more serious in tone like the Craig movies, or lighter, like the older runs with the likes of Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan. (Though, based on Villeneuve's filmography, and the fact that it's being written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, I'd bet closer to the former than the latter.) It's hard to know just how well Mitchell would fit without knowing more about the film itself.
Hopefully we learn more in the weeks and months ahead. Most likely that will happen sometime after Villeneuve's next movie, the epic Dune: Part Three hits theaters on December 18.
Add us as a preferred source on Google