Jack Lowden: The Everyman Who Would Be Bond

Jack Lowden is now the top contender to play replace Daniel Craig as James Bond for Denis Villeneuve’s reboot. The Scottish actor is one of four contenders screen-testing for the role, according to Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter. As of late October, prediction sites, Polymarket and The Hollywood Reporter, place him ahead of Callum Turner and Josh O’Connor, but a fourth mystery actor is also in contention.

So, what makes him the favourite, and what might count against him?

The Slough House Audition

Lowden is currently starring in Apple TV’s Slow Horses, an adaptation of Mick Heron’s spy novels. He plays River Cartwright, a disgraced MI5 officer, exiled to Slough House after a botched training exercise. Under the leadership of Jackson Lamb (played by Gary Oldman), Cartwright tries to rehabilitate himself as an agent, but very little goes his way. Mistakes pile up, and apart from a few signs of competency, Cartwright is considered a stuff up, among a disreputable group agents who have been put out to pasture for their blunders.

Many call the series his unofficial Bond audition. Across several seasons Lowden has shown he can handle the physical work, the tradecraft and the moral murk of British espionage. The final screentests assess stunt work as well as camera presence and acting ability, providing Slow Horses the practice ground for a future 007.

The Everyman Question

There is just one caveat: Lowden is an Everyman, which is not the normal choice to play the suave sophisticated British spy, known for his amazing stunts, his luck with the ladies, and saving the world. Still, Craig humanized Bond in a way that took the character back to Fleming. But continuing that path by making his follow-up an everyman might be a step too far.

Detractors will say he lacks the commanding screen presence the part demands, and that none of his previous roles, from Dunkirk to Mary Queen of Scots, hint at the swagger of 007. Supporters will argue that’s precisely the point: a reboot is a chance to redefine Bond, and an actor who disappears into roles may find a version of the character nobody has seen before.

This disparity is made plain in Slow Horses. Cartwright is the opposite of Bond; a spy defined by failure: ambitious, impulsive and kept away from the real work. Bond is the first agent British intelligence hands an assignment too. Cartwright stumbles into one that nobody wants him to have.

Craig faced the same doubts in 2005, when critics wrote him off as too blunt and too unlike his predecessors. Casino Royale proved he was the right choice. But Lowden isn’t Craig, and perhaps that is the point.

He has top billing in the prediction markets, but audiences are divided. Lowden has a lot to prove if cast and has said he is “flattered” by the comparison to Bond.

The Oldman Effect

Lowden’s odds jumped in September after Oldman spoke to Canadian broadcaster Global. Oldman said the role had been chosen but not yet announced, adding, “So my fingers are crossed for Jack.” Headlines quickly took that as confirmation.

Oldman later set the record straight. Speaking with Josh Horowitz at TIFF, he said he does not know who will play Bond, though he stood by his belief that the role has been cast. When he told Lowden his words had been spun, Lowden reportedly replied: “Oh, they do that kind of thing, the f*ckers.”

There is one more link worth noting. Nina Gold, the casting director on Slow Horses, is also casting the new Bond.

A Lighter Touch?

Slow Horses does combine grittiness with humour. A similar approach to the new Bond reboot might play to Lowden’s strengths as an everyman. Some have called for more humour to return to the series, and this approach would make a Lowden Bond fit well.

Two years ago, Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused podcast asked what a Lowden Bond would look like. Lowden responded, after praising Craig’s run as “brilliant”, that bringing more humour to Bond could work.

He’d likely have a different approach to humour than Roger Moore, though there would likely be a return of puny quips, which had already started to seep into Craig’s last two Bond films, SPECTRE and No Time to Die. Humour has always been part of the character’s DNA. But would be see a return to a lighter touch after Casino Royale and Skyfall, two films that Villeneuve has cited as his two favorite Bond films? And do audiences want this change in direction? Craig’s era looms large as a comparison, and his era brought in more box office that Brosnan’s, a fan favorite.

Lowden is the bookmakers’ favourite for clear reasons: proven spy credentials, a casting director who knows his work, and a famous co-star in his corner. Whether he has the presence to fill Bond’s tuxedo is the question only the screen test, and eventually the film, can answer. If he is chosen, the burden falls on him to show exactly why.