Aaron Taylor-Johnson could be the new James Bond after Daniel Craig. That would at least be completely okay for Pierce Brosnan. Fourteen years ago, it was hard to imagine that the now 33-year-old would one day receive the license to kill. In 2010, Aaron Taylor-Johnson played the total victim in Kick-Ass.
Who is Aaron Taylor-Johnson?
- The Brit began his career as a child; at 13, he appeared in the Jackie Chan film Shanghai Knights as young Charlie Chaplin.
- He had his artistic breakthrough in 2009 as John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, which was directed by his later wife, Sam Taylor-Wood.
- Most viewers will know him as “Dave Lizewski” aka Kick-Ass, a wannabe superhero who constantly needs to be rescued by a younger girl.
In Bullet Train, Taylor-Johnson plays the cool killer Tangerine:
Taylor-Johnson began his career as the victim of the day
What characterized the role back then? The role of “Kick-Ass” was like the anti-Bond, since the boy was everything but cool.
Dave Lizewski is quite the loser who wishes he were a hero like the comics he reads. But the only superpower he has is a certain insensitivity to pain, and he needs it because throughout Kick-Ass and the sequel Kick-Ass 2, he gets beaten up constantly and has to take it.
In the end, he only survives because a much younger and more competent girl, Hit-Girl, regularly saves him.
Back then, if anyone had said: This will be the next James Bond – hardly anyone would have believed it. In 2010, it would have been more likely that Chloë Grace Moretz would get the role as the first female Bond than that they would actually consider the skinny boy for it.
From wannabe hero to super mutant Quicksilver
And is he cool now? Yes, Aaron Taylor-Johnson has had an impressive career. He starred in Oliver Stone’s hard drug thriller Savages. Then he became a real superhero as Quicksilver in the Marvel movies.
Most recently, he was the cool and smart hitman Tangerine in Bullet Train.
Anyone who sees him in Bullet Train, 12 years after Kick-Ass, will hardly recognize the skinny boy because Taylor-Johnson is now a tough guy, with a certain resemblance to Ryan Gosling’s look in The Nice Guys
.
Together with Gosling, Taylor-Johnson will also be seen in Fall Guy.
Hot candidate for the new Bond
And now is he going to be the new James Bond? At least the rumors are increasing. In a radio show, former Bond Pierce Brosnan was asked what he thinks of Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Bond:
“I think the man has the stuff, the talent, and the charisma to play Bond – clearly.”
Brosnan says he has also heard that Taylor-Johnson is in discussions to be the new Bond and that he would welcome it in any case.
According to a report by the Sun, he has been formally offered the role and is set to sign to become the next Bond. However, this has not been confirmed yet.
Pierce Brosnan believed he was not a good James Bond – “That is a terrible feeling”
