In the film, Bean played Alec Trevelyan, a rogue MI6 agent and former ally of Bond — 006. It was inspired casting. Bean brought a hard-edged intensity to the role that made him feel like a genuine physical threat to Pierce Brosnan’s smoother, more elegant Bond.

Director Martin Campbell even looked back to From Russia with Love for inspiration during the brutal final fight between Bond and Trevelyan inside the giant Cuban satellite antenna. Like Bond’s claustrophobic train cabin battle with Red Grant aboard the Orient Express, the fight between 007 and 006 was designed to feel close-quarters, vicious and exhausting.

But before Bean became Bond’s dark reflection, he was briefly in the running to become Bond himself.

Following the end of Timothy Dalton’s tenure after Licence to Kill, producers searched for an actor capable of redefining 007 for the 1990s. Brosnan, who had famously lost the role to Dalton in 1987 because of contractual issues with Remington Steele, returned to the shortlist.

So did Bean.

His audition impressed producers enough that he was brought back for a second screen test. Bean’s brooding intensity could have taken Bond in a harder direction, not unlike Dalton’s colder interpretation of Fleming’s spy.

Liam Neeson Turned The Role Down

Yet the more serious threat to Brosnan’s casting may actually have been Liam Neeson.

Fresh off Schindler’s List, Neeson had emerged as a major international star, and Bond producers pursued him for the role. But Neeson later revealed that his future wife, Natasha Richardson, gave him an ultimatum while they were filming Nell: if he accepted Bond, they would not get married.

Neeson walked away from 007.

The role ultimately returned to Brosnan — the actor many audiences already associated with Bond long before he officially inherited the tuxedo.

Sean Bean Inspired A Rewrite of the Villain

Ironically, though, Sean Bean still helped shape the future of the franchise.

His screen test reportedly impressed the filmmakers so much that Alec Trevelyan evolved into something more than a conventional Bond villain. Rather than Bond’s older mentor from earlier drafts, Trevelyan became Bond’s equal — another 00 agent who knew MI6 from the inside.

In many ways, Alec Trevelyan became the version of Bond Sean Bean himself might have played: colder, angrier and physically dangerous beneath the charm.

And that may have been even more valuable to GoldenEye than casting him as 007.