As speculation runs rampant over who will be the next James Bond, Henry Cavill's name has increasingly come up -- and the director of the last two Mission: Impossible films voiced his support for the actor to become the next 007.
"He'd make an excellent Bond," said director Christopher McQuarrie in a recent feature by The Hollywood Reporter. McQuarrie directed 2015's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and 2018's Mission: Impossible - Fallout, where Cavill played August Walker, the dapper, mustachioed agent of the CIA who was secretly allied with the Apostles terrorist group.
McQuarrie added that Cavill was a pure "gentleman" and exuded the charm necessary to portray 007, a sentiment echoed by director Matthew Vaughn, who cast Cavill as a similar spy character in the film Argylle, set to debut on Apple TV+ in 2022.
"I needed someone who was born to play Bond -- which Henry is -- and then nick him before Bond did," Vaughn said. "He plays a larger-than-life action hero with a wink."
Cavill himself did not specify whether he was intending to play Britain's most famous secret agent in the near future, only stating that "it would be very exciting to have a conversation with the producers."
The latest film in the 007 franchise, No Time to Die, ended actor Daniel Craig's five-film run as the secret agent. While the jury is still out on whether the Bond franchise will reinvent itself in a drastic fashion similar to 2006's Casino Royale, Craig's first film in the franchise, No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga hinted in an October interview that he has a plan to reboot the series that he's keeping to himself for now.
Cavill, for his part, is currently busy with Netflix's The Witcher, which just wrapped up Season 2. While future appearances as the DC Extended Universe's Superman -- who Cavill first portrayed in 2013's Man of Steel -- appear to be out of the cards at the moment, the actor is also gearing up for another appearance as Sherlock Holmes in the upcoming sequel to Enola Holmes and a Highlander reboot.
Aside from James Bond, fan speculation also highlighted the actor as an inspired choice for entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Captain Britain, the rough UK equivalent of Captain America -- and Cavill himself told The Hollywood Reporter that "there's something fun about that, and I do love being British."
Source: The Hollywood Reporter