Who can supersede Daniel Craig as the next James Bond?

After 16 years, five films, and a very dubious pink tuxedo, Daniel Craig's tenure as James Bond sadly ended earlier this year.

While we're still not entirely sure what Quantum of Solace is, we do know that Craig delivers some of the best films in the franchise and can be hard to follow.

This is an essential casting solution. Huge box office earnings depend on selecting the right actor for the role.

"The new Bond isn't just a red carpet suit and the watchmaking business," says Mark O'Connell, author of Bullet Catching: Memoirs of a Bond Fan Diplomat Media, an anointed son of British culture and the face of a billion-dollar ecosystem of products and approvals.

"He should be instantly recognizable in every corner of the world, like James Bond. So he had to look good, hold the camera and dominate a cinema screen the size of a football field.

Tests for 2021: what can you remember?

Of course, any new Bond cast member will likely want to pay homage to his predecessors, "but he's going to bring his qualities to the role," O'Connell said. "He doesn't have to be the lead actor. It wasn't Daniel Craig when he landed the role in 2005. But he was a leading man – something producer Barbara Broccoli had to give more than a year to talk about taking on bonds.

So who can?

Let's start with the basics: we know Bond will be a different man. "James Bond can be any color, but he's a boy," producer Barbara Broccoli said in 2020.

"I think we have to create a new character for women - strong female characters. I'm not interested in taking on male and female characters to play it. I think women are much more attractive than that."

With that in mind, things don't get much more masculine than Tom Hardy, an actor who was once tough on the big screen - he played the Cray twins in Legend and starred in Venom, Dunkirk, and Crazy Max: The Road of Rage.

With a role like this, it's easy to see why Hardy has been a bookmaker's favorite for quite some time. In 2012, he threw his hat in the ring and told Magic, "I want to play Bond with [Tenet director] Christopher Nolan or something. That's great.

However, at the age of 44, he threatened to miss the boat.