Who Will Be the Next Bond Girl? 8 Actors Who Could Join the Next 007 Film

• Amazon MGM Studios hasn’t officially announced a female lead or shortlist for Denis Villeneuve’s next James Bond film.
• Sydney Sweeney has attracted the clearest Bond-specific casting rumours so far, though she hasn’t confirmed any involvement.
• Zendaya, Anya Taylor-Joy, Florence Pugh and several other actors have credible connections to the filmmakers behind the next 007 adventure.

Pussy Galore. Plenty O’Toole. Holly Goodhead. Xenia Onatopp. Alotta Fagina (oh, wait, wrong franchise). For decades, becoming a Bond girl meant your character might be handed a name with an on-the-nose innuendo to earn a few laughs. But things have changed dramatically since Ursula Andress played Honey Rider in Dr No. After her, the likes of Honor Blackman, Lana Wood, Lois Chiles and Famke Janssen took those wonderfully unsubtle names and made them part of James Bond history.

But the “Bond girl” has never been a single job role. Bond’s female characters have been everything from lovers to villains; they’ve been double agents, intelligence officers from the CIA, and occasionally, they’re the ones saving 007’s butt from whatever mess he’s got himself into. With the Daniel Craig-era well and truly over, we cast our minds back to characters like Vesper Lynd, Nomi and Paloma, each one stretching the archetype further beyond the traditional love-interest role.

That makes predicting who the next Bond girl will be even harder. Amazon MGM Studios has officially started its search for a new James Bond, but nobody has announced anything about what the next major female role will even look like, let alone who’s playing her. So rather than judging who looks best standing beside an Aston Martin in one of those elegant evening gowns before a high-stakes poker game, we’ve done a little intelligence work ourselves. We’re looking at the actors with an actual Bond rumour, a connection to the filmmakers putting the next movie together, or another decent reason to be in the conversation.

What Exactly Is a Bond Girl?

“Bond girl” is one of those terms that everybody understands until you actually try to define it. The term refers to the prominent female characters who enter Bond’s orbit during his adventures. Sometimes they’re romantic interests. Sometimes they’re helping him. Other times they’re actively trying to kill him. Sometimes, they’re all three at once.

Even some of the earlier examples were far more capable than the stereotype suggests. Pussy Galore, despite having one of the franchise’s more infamous names, ran her own flying circus, worked alongside Goldfinger and ultimately helped Bond stop Operation Grand Slam.

The Craig films pushed things further again. Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd is a Treasury operative whose decisions fundamentally shape Bond, while Lashana Lynch’s Nomi is another MI6 00 agent and Ana de Armas’ Paloma is a CIA operative who spends her brief appearance in No Time to Die proving she’s considerably more useful than Bond expects.

So although “Bond girl” is the convenient shorthand we’re all familiar with, the characters attached to it can stretch that definition pretty far.

Is a Bond Girl the Same as a Femme Fatale?

Not exactly. The classic femme fatale is a more specific archetype: a seductive, dangerous woman whose allure or deception draws the protagonist into trouble. There’s no doubt Bond has met a few of those over the years. The cleanest example is Famke Janssen’s Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye. She’s explicitly dangerous, sexually charged and very much working against Bond, putting her comfortably in both camps.

But that doesn’t make every Bond girl a femme fatale. Nomi and Paloma are allies. Vesper Lynd is far more complicated than a straightforward seductress. Tracy becomes Bond’s wife.

So yeah, a Bond girl can be a femme fatale, but being a femme fatale is only one way to become a Bond girl.

What Do We Know About the Next James Bond Film?

Amazon is staying pretty tight-lipped about its female characters. What we do know is that Denis Villeneuve will direct the next 007 film; Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is writing it, with his first draft already complete; Amy Pascal and David Heyman are producing; and casting director Nina Gold has been brought in as the studio searches for Daniel Craig’s replacement.

Amazon MGM still hasn’t announced who will play the next James Bond. More importantly for us, they haven’t announced a female lead, a character description or an official shortlist.

That gives us quite a bit of room to do our spy work, rather than rely on the internet deciding its favourite actor would look good ordering a vodka martini. Go get it yourself.

8 Actors Who Could Be the Next Bond Girl

With that in mind, we’re not pretending these eight women are currently sitting outside the casting room at Amazon MGM Studios. Each has a reason to be here, whether that’s a genuine Bond rumour, an existing relationship with Villeneuve or another member of the creative team, or their own interest in joining the franchise.

1. Sydney Sweeney

She might not be the most popular girl on the internet at the moment, but Sydney Sweeney is on our list for more than the headlines surrounding her ‘Just Sports’ ad. She’s also where most Bond-girl conversations seem to begin because the rumours have followed her further than anyone else on this list.

The Euphoria and Christy star has repeatedly been linked with the franchise, enough that Variety asked her the question directly. She didn’t confirm anything, saying she didn’t know much about the rumours and that taking a role would “depend on the script”. But you’ve got to give her credit. She may have her sights set on something bigger, telling them, “I think I’d have more fun as James Bond.”

2. Zendaya

Zendaya has already proven she’s a box office star. Her Spider-Man history also gives her a useful connection to the next Bond film: producer Amy Pascal. Even without the same Bond-specific rumours surrounding Sweeney, Zendaya has a pretty useful contacts list.

She’s already spent years working with Villeneuve as Chani across the Dune films, including the upcoming Dune: Part Three. So if Villeneuve and Pascal want actors whose work they already know well, Zendaya is a blockbuster star they can rely on.

3. Anya Taylor-Joy

Much like Zendaya, Anya Taylor-Joy joins our list through her connections with Villeneuve. The director had wanted to work with her on Dune before scheduling complicated the idea, eventually finding a way to introduce her as Alia Atreides in Dune: Part Two. She returns with a substantially larger role in Dune: Part Three.

Fan-casting aside, we’ve already seen her carry Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, so the idea of putting her into another large-scale action franchise hardly requires a great leap of imagination.

4. Florence Pugh

Florence Pugh is another actor in Villeneuve’s existing ensemble to consider for the next Bond girl. She joined the Dune universe as Princess Irulan in Part Two and returns for the third film, giving her an established working relationship with the next Bond director.

She also sits comfortably between prestige films and enormous franchises, moving from Midsommar to Oppenheimer and Marvel’s MCU without either side feeling particularly strange. It’s a useful mix of talent for the next Bond film to draw on while they try to balance character work with cars, explosions and the occasional collapsing lair.

5. Jessie Buckley

Jessie Buckley gets here through a different member of the Bond team: Nina Gold. The casting director now overseeing the next 007 film previously cast Buckley in Hamnet, giving her a genuine professional relationship with the person helping assemble Bond’s next cast.

That’s not evidence Buckley has been approached, but it’s a better reason to put her on the list than simply deciding an Oscar-winning actor might be good in a spy movie.

6. Aimee-Ffion Edwards

Aimee-Ffion Edwards has connections to two members of the new Bond operation. She played Esme Shelby in Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders and currently stars as MI5 agent Shirley Dander in Slow Horses, which was cast by Nina Gold.

She may lack the global profile of Sweeney or Zendaya, but those relationships with the writer and casting director, combined with several seasons playing an MI5 agent, give her one of the more interesting dark-horse cases here.

7. Margaret Qualley

Time for a dark horse pick. Margaret Qualley’s connections don’t go quite as deep as the others, but there’s another reason she’s here. She appeared prominently during the James Bond tribute at the 2025 Academy Awards, dancing through the opening of a medley celebrating the franchise before Lisa, Doja Cat and Raye performed Bond themes. And of course, the internet did its thing and started wondering whether she could be the next Bond girl.

But unlike the endless list of actors fans have thrown at Bond over the years, we can at least trace where this particular conversation began.

8. Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan has made things considerably easier by putting herself forward. The Irish actor has publicly said she is “dead serious” about playing a young female Bond villain, which raises a much more interesting possibility than guessing who will become Bond’s next love interest.

Maybe the next “Bond girl” is another MI6 operative. Maybe she’s the person he falls for. Maybe she spends two hours trying to kill him. Ronan, at least, already knows which version she wants.

Who Actually Makes Sense for the Next Bond Film?

Actor	Why She’s Here	Evidence Basis
Sydney Sweeney	Has directly addressed ongoing Bond casting rumours	Bond-specific reporting
Zendaya	Existing relationships with Villeneuve and Amy Pascal	Creative-team connections
Anya Taylor-Joy	Current Villeneuve collaborator	Director connection
Florence Pugh	Current Villeneuve collaborator with major franchise experience	Director connection
Jessie Buckley	Existing relationship with casting director Nina Gold	Casting-director connection
Aimee-Ffion Edwards	Has worked with Steven Knight and Nina Gold	Writer + casting connection
Margaret Qualley	Bond speculation followed her 2025 Oscars tribute appearance	Bond-specific speculation
Saoirse Ronan	Has directly expressed interest in playing a female Bond villain	Direct public interest

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The strangest part about predicting the next Bond girl is that we’re trying to imagine a character we haven’t met, with a completely unknown story. But why let that get in the way of a good discussion?

Villeneuve and Knight could end up giving us another version of Vesper Lynd, or they could go a little more old-school with another gloriously unsubtle name in the Pussy Galore or Holly Goodhead tradition. Perhaps they’ll give us somebody closer to Nomi, or something completely different that the franchise hasn’t tried before. Until then, these eight women, and I’m sure plenty more out there, have a reason to be in the room.