Understandably, there's a great deal of intrigue surrounding who will ultimately take over from Daniel Craig as the next James Bond, with many fans worried that their top picks - Henry Cavill, Idris Elba, and Jamie Dornan, for example - will be aged out by the time the next movie finally begins shooting.
Last year, producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson recently said they were looking to find an actor who will commit to the role for the long haul. The latter followed up by making it clear that while they're not planning to cast a considerably younger actor as Craig's replacement, they do want someone who will play this character for anywhere up to a decade and a half.
Someone who would be the perfect age at 32 is Kick-Ass, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Bullet Train star Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Rumours that he was being eyed for the role first started doing the rounds last year, and Puck (via ActioNewz.com) has now followed up with an exciting update.
According to Matthew Belloni, "The Aaron Taylor-Johnson rumors are true - he sat with producer Barbara Broccoli, and the meeting went well, per sources."
"But while Taylor-Johnson fits the bill - great actor, British, fits the younger direction the Broccolis want to go, accomplished but not particularly famous - he’s about to be a much bigger star. If Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff Kraven the Hunter or Universal’s Ryan Gosling two-hander The Fall Guy works, Taylor-Johnson might end up, ironically, too famous to take on Bond."
Comic book fans already have their doubts about Sony's Kraven the Hunter, so the Marvel Comics adaptation being responsible for Taylor-Johnson missing out on Bond...well, it will just give them another reason to dislike it! The movie isn't scheduled to come out until much later this year, though, so if a casting announcement comes before then, it may not matter.
If anything, a couple of big hits would raise the actor's profile to a point where it's likely to only increase the hype to see his take on 007. We'll have to wait and see, but ActioNewz.com has all the latest Bond updates.