Aaron Taylor-Johnson Is New OMEGA Brand Ambassador. Is He Also 007?
It’s official: Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the new Ambassador for OMEGA watches.
This is a prestige gig for sure. But more importantly, speculation is running wild that this announcement means Taylor-Johnson is the next James Bond.
The photos show the actor in a Tom Ford jacket. Ford also dressed Craig in many of his Bond films.
The photos show Taylor-Johnson with the Head of OMEGA and perusing many historic OMEGA pieces at the their museum in Berlin.
While Taylor-Johnson’s announcement as OMEGA Brand Ambassador doesn’t automatically make him James Bond. It does make it more likely.
We need to back up a moment. OMEGA has an association with many actors and sports stars. But there are only a handful of Brand Ambassadors, including George Clooney and supermodel / actress Cindy Crawford.
But…Bond is the biggest brand ambassador for OMEGA. It’s a lucrative arrangement for both the Bond producers and the watch company. The association began in 1994. The OMEGA / Bond deal was brokered by Jean Claude Biver when both OMEGA and the Bond franchise were struggling. Bond was about to re-launch the series with a brand new Bond—Pierce Brosnan—after a six-year hiatus after the disappointing reception of Timothy Dalton’s final Bond flick, Licence To kill (1989).
EON Productions wanted $50,000 but Biver instead paid $2 million for deeper integration in the screenplay and in promotional material.
This OMEGA / Bond agreement was for the lifetime of the franchise. Now, what does lifetime mean in terms of the new Amazon takeover? Does the deal effectively end now that EON has ceded creative control to the streamer?
Hard to say. But considering the lucrative brand relationship for both parties, it is likely a relationship that Amazon wants to continue.
Brosnan debuted with the OMEGA Seamaster on his wrist in 1994, before he made his debut in Goldeneye (1995) but not before he was announced as Bond at a Press Conference. The OMEGA Seamaster effectively became Bond’s watch, which replaced the Rolex worn by previous Bonds. This new tradition continued in the Daniel Craig films. Like Brosnan, Craig was announced as OMEGA Ambassador the same year he was announced as James Bond.
This association has led to speculation that Aaron Taylor-Johnson must be the new Bond. But there is one difference. Both Brosnan and Craig were first announced as James Bond and then announced as OMEGA Brand Ambassadors. Taylor-Johnson has not been announced as the next Bond, however, which means his announcement as OMEGA Brand Ambassador does not necessarily equate to his announcement as the new James Bond.
Nonetheless, Taylor-Johnson is a frontrunner for Bond. And probably the most likely choice at this stage.
Taylor-Johnson has been in the spotlight as a potential Bond candidate ever since he showed up at the 007: Sound of Music event with Barbara Broccoli. Allegedly, he was in talks with EON Productions, but nothing came of it. Of course, both Broccoli and her step-brother and co-producer, Michael G. Wilson, had their own troubles with Amazon, which led to her calling them “F&cking idiots” and Jeff Bezos allegedly telling Prime to get rid of her, whatever the cost. So, any discussions with Taylor-Johnson and EON ended when they accepted the cool $1 billion dollar offer from Amazon for creative control of the Bond series.
Like Craig, Taylor-Johnson is a divisive choice as Bond. He has his haters. On a positive note, Taylor-Johnson, like Craig, has the acting range that other candidates for the role don’t have. Theo James and Henry Cavill both look the part. Both have that classic Bond look. But both fall short in their acting range.
Having said that, if there was a sudden about face and either James or Cavill were announced as Bond, I’d still be onboard. But Taylor-Johnson is the pick of them all.
Taylor-Johnson also looks the part. He has a cruel edge about him that you’d expect from Bond, rather than being just a suave-looking pretty boy. He has that killer look. He needs a haircut and a shave. But remember when Pierce Brosnan was announced as Bond he had a beard and an unruly mane too.
Nonetheless, there is something in the air. And something familiar about Taylor-Johnson’s announcement as OMEGA Brand Ambassador. The announcement has generated more buzz around Bond. And this kind of marketing ploy comes direct from the EON playbook. Anticipation for the next Bond’s announcement is high, and is something that EON always wanted to arouse. Could new producer David Heyman and Amy Pascal be using a similar playbook? Both expressed their respect for Broccoli and Wilson, and it seems likely both, with their decades of experience, are shrewd enough to emulate the approach by EON.
But time will tell. We are likely just a matter of weeks or months away from an official announcement of the next James Bond.
