In today's golden age of gambling, you can bet on pretty much anything. That includes betting on who will play the next James Bond villain whenever Amazon MGM Studios finally gets around to making another movie. According to Gambling.com, none other than Game of Thrones veteran Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) is in the lead to play the next baddie doomed to be thwarted by the British superspy.
Gambling.com says that Dinklage is the favorite "on betting apps." I'll admit that I don't really know exactly how they come to that conclusion. A vibe? Dinklage's multiple Emmy wins for playing Tyrion? His exacting elocution? The fact that he was in the movie Brothers on Prime Video so they're already familiar with him over there? However this conclusion was reached, Gambling.com gives him 13/8 odds to be the next male Bond villain, or roughly 38%.
For your information, other names in contention include Barry Keoghan (7/4 odds, or 36.4%), Ben Affleck (2/1 odds, or 33.4%) and Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson (ditto). Does it matter I haven't listed all the candidates and that already adds up to well over 100%? I'm sure gamblers will understand.
As you can sense, I'm a little skeptical about the methodology here, but it's true that all bets are off (no pun intended, I swear) when it comes to James Bond. Recently, Amazon gained full creative control over the franchise, whereas before members of the Broccoli family had been running the show ever since the first James Bond movie came out in 1962. I suspect a James Bond cinematic universe is in our future.
And it's not like Peter Dinklage couldn't play a good villain, joining the likes of Christopher Lee, Christopher Walken, Javier Bardem, Christoph Waltz, Mads Mikkelsen, Rami Malek and fellow Game of Thrones veterans Sean Bean and Jonathan Pryce. He can be sinister. He has a wicked wit. He could sit menacingly in a chair and pet an overfed cat when talking about his plans to blast Paris with a giant laser. But I don't know if gamblers are the first people to trust on the issue.
Rosamund Pike in the lead to play the next female Bond villain
For the record, Gambling.com also reported on some of the people most likely to play the next female Bond villain, of which where have been a few over the years. Leading that pack is The Wheel of Time star Rosamund Pike, who has 6/4 odds, or a 40% change. I guess we just ignore the fact that she was already in a Bond movie, 2002's Die Another Day. Again, I'm not sure what those odds mean exactly, but I do know that Pike would be great at playing a merciless villain; watch her performance in the Netflix movie I Care A Lot if you don't believe me.
In the meanwhile, Pike will return as Moiraine in The Wheel of Time, which debuts its third season next week. And Dinklage voices a talking goat in the blockbuster smash Wicked, which will be streaming on Peacock on March 21.
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