James Bond Final Screen Tests: 10 Things to Know as Lowden, Turner and O’Connor Face the Camera

By the Filmoria News Desk

The final screen tests for the next James Bond began in London on Friday 23 October 2026 and are running into this week, according to reports from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline. Jack Lowden, Callum Turner and Josh O’Connor are the three names reported as testing, with a fourth actor unnamed, and Amazon MGM Studios hasn’t confirmed or denied any of it. There’s no Bond 26 release date yet, so nothing is showing in UK cinemas or on any UK streaming service; producer Amy Pascal has said the end of 2026 is “a good bet” for the casting announcement.

This is a ranked list of the ten things that matter most about the final James Bond screen tests now under way in London. We’ve ordered them by how directly each one bears on who actually gets the part, starting with the tests themselves and the three reported names, then working outwards to the people making the call, the timeline and how this search compares with the last time the role changed hands.

Here’s the detail nobody seems to have pointed out yet. All three named finalists were born in 1990, within four months of each other: Turner in February, O’Connor in May and Lowden in June. Whatever Villeneuve and Amazon decide, they’ve clearly settled on an age before they’ve settled on a face. Every one of them is 36, a year younger than Daniel Craig was when he was unveiled in October 2005.

1. The final screen tests (London, Amazon MGM Studios)

What makes it stand out: It’s the first time in more than five years of guessing that the Bond search has reached the stage where actors are physically on camera in the part. Key data: Tests were reported to start on Friday 23 October 2026 in London and continue into the following week, with Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline all reporting the session and Amazon MGM declining to comment. Why it matters: Screen tests are the last practical step before an offer, so the field is now as small as it’s going to get.

For most of 2026 the Bond conversation has run on podcasts, betting odds and a co-star talking out of turn. This is different. A screen test costs real money: a crew, a set, a stunt team, a director’s time. Studios don’t stage them for show. The reports also say the dates were moved so every finalist could test in the same window, because scheduling conflicts had pushed some of them back. That detail matters more than it looks. If Amazon simply wanted to rubber-stamp a choice, it wouldn’t need everyone in the same room in the same week. Lining them up side by side suggests the decision is still genuinely open, or at least that Villeneuve wants to see the comparison on film before he signs off.

The timing has slipped more than once. Earlier reports put final tests in August, then September. Filmoria’s September piece on the Jack Lowden casting frenzy noted tests were expected through that month. They’ve now landed in late October, which is a squeeze if Amy Pascal’s end-of-year target is going to hold. It isn’t impossible. Villeneuve shoots fast once he’s made up his mind, and studios tend to want an announcement with enough runway to build a reveal around it.

2. Jack Lowden (b. 1990, Scotland, Slow Horses)

What makes it stand out: Lowden walked into the final round as the clear favourite, and nothing reported in the past week has shifted that. Key data: Oddschecker listed him at 8/13 on 23 October 2026, an implied chance of about 62%, and prediction markets had him at around 64%. Why it matters: If he gets it, he’d be the first Bond actor raised in Scotland since Sean Connery, who created the screen role in 1962’s Dr. No.

Lowden’s odds have been shortening since August, when Richard Osman named him on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast. Then came Gary Oldman’s September interview, in which his Slow Horses co-star said “they have picked him”, a remark Oldman later softened by saying he was “hoping” it was Lowden. In the weeks since, the market has treated Lowden as the man to beat, and his reported place in the final tests keeps him there.

What he brings is easy to see if you’ve watched Slow Horses. As River Cartwright he’s spent six seasons playing a spy who isn’t quite as good as he thinks he is, which is a decent rehearsal for a Bond who might be written as younger and rawer than the polished versions of the past. He’s got stage credentials too, including a 2014 Olivier Award for Ghosts, and film work from Dunkirk to Benediction. What he hasn’t done yet is carry a big action film on his own. That’s exactly what the stunt section of a screen test is designed to find out.

3. Callum Turner (b. 1990, England, Masters of the Air)

What makes it stand out: Turner was the favourite before Lowden overtook him, and he’s still the only rival the market treats as a serious threat. Key data: Prediction markets put him at about 28% as the tests began, and Oddschecker described the race as a two-way fight between him and Lowden. Why it matters: He’s the finalist with the most recent experience of a large, physically demanding production, which is what a Bond shoot really is.

Turner’s case was being made long before anyone had heard Osman’s tip. Masters of the Air put him in the cockpit and at the top of the cast of a big-budget Apple TV+ war series. The Boys in the Boat showed he can anchor a period studio film. The Capture, the BBC surveillance thriller, gave him a paranoid, procedural edge that sits quite close to what Steven Knight might be writing.

He’s also a more conventional leading-man shape than Lowden. Tall, square-jawed, comfortable in a suit. That’s not nothing in a franchise that sells tuxedos and watches. The risk for Amazon is the opposite of Lowden’s: Turner looks the part so readily that the casting could feel safe. Villeneuve doesn’t usually go for safe. But he also cast Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler in Dune, two actors whose screen presence did a lot of the work, so a strong camera test could swing it.

4. Josh O’Connor (b. 1990, England, The Crown and Challengers)

What makes it stand out: O’Connor is the name nobody had on their list a month ago, and he’s the one the bookmakers moved fastest on last week. Key data: William Hill cut him from 12/1 to 8/1 and then to 7/1 between 21 and 23 October 2026, and prediction markets had him around 19%; Deadline named him among the testers, while The Hollywood Reporter’s report mentioned only Lowden and Turner. Why it matters: He’s the most decorated actor of the three and the one who’d most change what kind of Bond film this is.

O’Connor won an Emmy in 2021 for playing Prince Charles in The Crown. Since then he’s made a habit of picking directors rather than franchises: Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, and this summer Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, where he played Dr Daniel Kellner, a cybersecurity expert with proof of alien life. Spielberg reportedly offered him the part without an audition. That kind of trust from a director at Spielberg’s level is exactly the reference Villeneuve would be looking for.

There’s an Amazon connection too. Challengers was an Amazon MGM release in 2024, so the studio has already sold a film with him at the centre of it. The question mark is the same one hanging over Lowden: O’Connor has never led an action film. He’s an actor of small gestures and awkward charm. A Bond built around that would be a real departure, closer to Craig’s wounded Casino Royale than to anything from the Brosnan years. It’s the kind of swing that makes for a better story than a safer pick, which may be why the odds moved so quickly.

5. The mystery fourth finalist (identity not disclosed)

What makes it stand out: The reports agree there’s at least one more actor in the room, and nobody has named him. Key data: Several outlets describe a shortlist of four, while sources quoted elsewhere put the group anywhere between three and five. Why it matters: Bond history is full of late surprises, and an unknown fourth name is the most obvious place for one to come from.

It’s tempting to fill the gap with a favourite. One outlet floated Jacob Elordi as the hidden fourth; industry sources have since dismissed that. Others have guessed at Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who led the betting for long stretches of 2024 and 2025, or Harris Dickinson, whose name keeps resurfacing. None of that is sourced, and Filmoria isn’t going to pretend otherwise.

What is worth saying is that Villeneuve has form for giving big roles to actors who weren’t on anyone’s radar. And Amazon has an incentive to keep one name out of the press, if only to make sure the eventual reveal still lands as news. When Daniel Craig was confirmed in 2005, he’d been doubted so loudly that the announcement itself became an event. A studio that has paid this much for the franchise will want a moment like that, and a dark-horse finalist is one way to keep that option open.

6. Who isn’t testing: Jacob Elordi and Jack O’Connell

What makes it stand out: Two actors who spent months near the top of the betting lists are reported to be out. Key data: Reports say Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi isn’t testing and is no longer in the mix, and Sinners star Jack O’Connell isn’t testing either. Why it matters: It tells us something about the brief, because both were serious names with very different strengths.

Elordi was always the outlier. He’s Australian, 29, and has the fastest-rising profile of anyone linked to the part, thanks to Saltburn, Priscilla and Euphoria. He’d have been the youngest Bond at casting since George Lazenby, and the first non-British, non-Irish lead since Lazenby too. Losing him suggests Amazon and Villeneuve want a Bond who reads as British without explanation.

O’Connell is a different loss. Starred Up, ’71 and SAS: Rogue Heroes made him the obvious choice if you wanted a harder, working-class Bond, and his profile grew again with Sinners and 28 Years Later. He’s the same age as all three finalists, so this isn’t about age. It’s about type. With O’Connell and Elordi out, the remaining field leans towards actors whose best work is quiet and internal rather than physical. That’s a choice, and it’s a Villeneuve-shaped one.

7. What a Bond screen test actually involves

What makes it stand out: Unlike most auditions, a Bond test is part acting exercise, part stunt rehearsal and part costume fitting. Key data: BBC News reported that this round has three parts: camera presence, stunts and dialogue. Why it matters: A lot of good actors can play the scenes; far fewer can sell the action and the tuxedo in the same afternoon.

The dialogue part of Bond tests has a long tradition. For decades, would-be 007s have been put through the hotel-room scene from From Russia with Love, where Bond finds Tatiana Romanova waiting in his bed. Henry Cavill’s 2005 test using that scene is the one most people have seen, and it shows why the scene is chosen. It asks an actor to be funny, wary and seductive in about three minutes, with very little to hide behind.

Whether Villeneuve has kept that scene isn’t known. He might well have written his own material with Knight. The stunt section is newer and more practical. After Craig did so much of his own physical work, studios want to know early how much a new lead can carry, both for safety and because insurers will ask. The camera-presence section is the hardest to define and probably the most important. It’s the reason Villeneuve, who shoots big faces in big frames on IMAX cameras, wants to see these actors lit and photographed rather than just reading lines in a room.

8. The people making the call (Amazon MGM Studios)

What makes it stand out: For the first time since the 1960s, Bond’s lead is being chosen without a Broccoli in charge. Key data: Amazon MGM took creative control of the franchise from Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson in February 2025, named Amy Pascal and David Heyman as producers, confirmed Denis Villeneuve as director on 24 June 2025 and Steven Knight as writer in July 2025, with Tanya Lapointe as executive producer. Why it matters: The taste of this group, not the Eon tradition, will decide what Bond looks like for the next decade.

Every Bond from Connery to Craig was picked by the Broccoli family and their partners at Eon. Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman cast Connery; Barbara Broccoli fought to get Craig the part when much of the press wanted someone else. That continuity has gone. In its place there’s a Hollywood studio head in Pascal, who produced Sony’s Spider-Man films, a British producer in Heyman, who ran the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films, and a director with a very precise visual sense.

Heyman is the one to watch. Harry Potter and Paddington were made in Britain with British casts, and he’s spent three decades spotting young UK actors early. Turner was in the Fantastic Beasts films Heyman produced. That doesn’t make Turner a lock. It does mean at least one person in the decision has watched him carry big sets on a long shoot, and that sort of first-hand knowledge counts in a room like this.

9. The timeline: tests now, announcement “by the end of the year”

What makes it stand out: For once, there’s a credible on-record target date. Key data: Amy Pascal told Deadline in August that “the end of the year is a good bet” for casting news; reports point to a 2027 shoot and a 2028 release, neither of which Amazon has confirmed. Why it matters: If the end-of-year window holds, the casting reveal will land within weeks of Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three opening in December 2026.

That clash isn’t an accident of the calendar. Villeneuve has spent 2026 finishing Dune: Part Three, which is due in cinemas in December and is up against Avengers: Doomsday in one of the most crowded Christmas corridors in years. A Bond announcement during that press tour would be either a gift or a distraction, depending on who you ask. It’s at least possible Amazon waits until Villeneuve’s Dune promotion is done, which would push the reveal to the very end of December or into January.

On the script, the picture is muddy. Knight has said he finished an early draft, while The Telegraph reported in 2026 that it was “nowhere near ready”. Both can be true. Knight said earlier this year that it helps to know who’s playing the part, while adding that you “write the character, not the actor”. Once the casting is settled, expect the next draft to be shaped around whoever wins. A 2027 shoot looks realistic if the casting happens on time. A 2028 release follows from that, though nothing is official, and any UK release date is not yet confirmed.

10. How this compares with Daniel Craig’s casting in 2005

What makes it stand out: The last Bond recasting is the clearest guide to how long the rest of this takes. Key data: Craig was unveiled on 14 October 2005 aged 37, and Casino Royale opened in UK cinemas in November 2006, about 13 months later. Why it matters: Even on the fastest possible schedule, the new Bond is at least a year from the screen after he’s named.

Craig’s reveal is famous for the boat on the Thames, the life jacket and the headlines that followed. Less remembered is how quickly Eon moved after it. Casino Royale was largely written, crewed and scheduled before he was announced, which is why it reached cinemas so fast. Bond 26 isn’t in that position. There’s no shooting date and no confirmed release, and the director still has a giant sci-fi film to open first.

The bigger comparison is the gap between films. No Time to Die came out in UK cinemas in September 2021. If Bond 26 lands in 2028, the wait will be about seven years, the longest in the series’ history, beating the six-year gap between Licence to Kill in 1989 and GoldenEye in 1995. That gap is part of why these screen tests feel like such a big deal. A whole generation of cinemagoers has grown up without a new Bond film, and whoever comes out of this week in London will be introducing the character to them.

Where the Bond race stands now

Strip away the betting noise and the picture is fairly simple. Three actors born in the same year, all British, all better known for character work than for action, are reported to be in front of Villeneuve’s cameras in London this week. Lowden is the favourite, Turner is close enough to worry him, and O’Connor is the late mover with the strongest awards record. There’s a fourth name we don’t know. Amazon hasn’t said a word, and until it does, all of this is reporting rather than fact. But it’s the most solid reporting the Bond search has produced, and if Amy Pascal’s timeline holds, we’ll know the answer before 2027.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter; Variety; Oddschecker; World of Reel; Movieguide (citing BBC News and Deadline); Irish Examiner.

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