Charlie Hunnam has endorsed Tom Hardy as the next James Bond while disclosing that he’d love to play the role himself if offered.
The 40-year-old ‘Sons of Anarchy’ star revealed that he would be honoured to take over as James Bond after Daniel Craig’s final outing as the legendary cinematic super-spy in ‘No Time To Die’.
While speaking to PEOPLE ahead of the release of his new film ‘Jungleland,’ Hunnam opened up about future roles that he is interested to play and the possibility of playing 007.
Asked if he would ever be open to playing Bond someday, Charlie Hunnam said, “100 percent.”
“I would be so flattered and honored to be considered to play James Bond as an Englishman,” he added. “But my intuition tells me that I shouldn’t be waiting for that phone call to come. I think there are many people ahead of me on that list.”
He further went on to dismiss any rumors of him being considered for the role, calling them “external chatter” but admitted that he’s “flattered” by his fans who believe he could lead the franchise.
“It’s very flattering sort of fan dialogue,” he says, before clarifying that there’s no truth to the rumors. “Nobody’s ever, on a professional level from within the industry, brought that up to me,” he added.
Still, he encouraged his fans to keep associating his name with the role, saying, “As much as people want to talk about me playing James Bond, please continue. Maybe that’s the genesis of these things. Maybe fan chatter leads to industry people actually talking about it in a more serious way.”
Charlie Hunnam also confessed that even if he isn’t the next actor to take on 007, he’d love to see Tom Hardy portray Bond.
“The person that I hear about in that conversation is Tom Hardy. I hear that he’s really the front runner,” he said.
“I think that would be sensational. I’m an enormous Tom Hardy fan so I would love to see him as James Bond.”
Meanwhile, Charlie Hunnam is currently gearing up for ‘Jungleland,’ a boxing drama film that he describes as a “love story between two brothers.”
The film opens in select theaters on Nov. 6.
