Anthony Hopkins shares a photo of himself with Pierce Brosnan and jokingly teases he is being "championed" to become the next James Bond. Originally created by novelist Ian Fleming in 1953, Bond is a Secret Intelligence Service Agent with the code number 007 who journeys around the world to stop various global threats generally carried out by a maniacal villain. The film franchise first began in 1962 with the Sean Connery-led Dr. No and has spanned 25 films and six different actors.
Brosnan first began his tenure as Bond in 1995's GoldenEye, which received rave reviews from critics and audiences and grossed over $350 million at the worldwide box office. Brosnan would carry the role through three more films, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day, which would see progressively worse reviews though are still looked favorably upon by some fans of the franchise. Following the response to Die Another Day, the series would take a hiatus to reconfigure itself and find a new star in Daniel Craig for the origin-adjacent reboot Casino Royale.
To close out his weekend, Hopkins took to Twitter to share a photo of himself with fellow Golden Globe nominee Brosnan. The Silence of the Lambs actor paired the photo with a cheeky joke of being "championed" to take over the role of Bond for the big screen. Check out Hopkins' funny post below:
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Though Hopkins' Bond comment can be read as a joke on the surface given Brosnan's fame as the super spy, there is actually an intriguing history linking Hopkins and the character. Following Connery's departure from the role, producers began looking for a new star to take over as Bond with Live and Let Die, with some who were eyed including Burt Reynolds, Adam West and Hopkins himself. However, feeling he wasn't the right fit for the material, Hopkins would decline the role.
Even more interesting of a connection between Hopkins and Brosnan's photo is that the former was offered the villain roles in both GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies, but would decline the latter in favor of working on The Mask of Zorro. While the two may have never collided in the James Bond franchise, one can only hope a producer sees the potential in putting the stars together in a future project. In the meantime, fans can look forward to Craig's upcoming final outing in the role when No Time to Die hits theaters on October 8.
Source: Anthony Hopkins/Twitter
