If I can just put my James Bond fan hat on, yesterday I came across an idea which struck me as interesting enough to flag up here. The speculation over who will be cast as 007 next is still rumbling on, of course. As I touched upon here a few months ago, it has been so long since we have seen a new Bond film that I have almost given up hope, quite frankly. Browsing Youtube yesterday evening, however, I watched a video which laid out an idea which I think could have legs.

As I understand it, the problem the guys at EON currently have is the massive gap left by Daniel Craig: Craig’s five Bond films had such an impact on the Bond series that whoever is next cast as 007 will have bigger shoes to fill than anyone before them. That is not to say that I think Craig himself did not have a lot to live up to – when he was cast as Bond in 2005, he certainly did – but the expectations will now be bigger than ever before. Whoever they cast will be under a huge amount of pressure to step into cinema’s greatest role.

The intriguing solution I came across last night struck me as quite left field, but I think it could work: Could Pierce Brosnan be recast as 007? As bizarre as that might initially sound, I honestly think it has legs. The problem is, at the end of the last film, No Time To Die, we saw Bond as played as Daniel Craig get blown up. Not only did that put an end to his tenure but also effectively brought an end to the character in general. After all, how can you continue a film franchise about a man who we saw die in the last film? The answer this video suggests is to return the role to it’s last-but-one actor – an incarnation of Bond which we didn’t see die, thereby bypassing his screen death.

Admittedly this idea is rather far fetched. Brosnan is 71, and could be well past playing James Bond. Yet, as the guy in the video says, his four Bond films didn’t really have a satisfying conclusion; he just sort of lost the role and was just chucked out on his ear. Bringing him back, perhaps for just one more Bond outing, could be a way to redress that. It would also bring back the 007 many Bond fans, including myself, know from our childhoods or adolescences, thus tapping in to an element of nostalgia. Giving the role back to him would thus reset the Bond franchise post Daniel Craig, clearing the way for an entirely new actor to be cast as 007.