Boy, Richard Madden sure wants you think he’s the next James Bond

The Citadel star posted a video sipping a martini, but what could that possibly mean?

By Sam Barsanti  |  April 30, 2023 | 4:22pm
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Boy, Richard Madden sure wants you think he’s the next James Bond
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Richard Madden Photo: Tim P. Whitby

Recently, Richard Madden—who we still think of as being from Game Of Thrones even though the Red Wedding aired a whole-ass decade ago and he just lit up the box office in 2021 as one of the Eternals—posted an Instagram video with his new Citadel co-star Stanley Tucci in which the two of them semi-silently sip shaken-not-stirred martinis and try to suppress little giggles. We don’t know for sure what The Point of it is, but it’s extremely clear what Madden wants us all to think The Point of it is: that’s he’s going to be the next James Bond.

Now, this is of course very silly. After all the hype and the stories about how they’re not going to choose this kind of person and they’re not going to choose that kind of person, it would be weird if they let Richard Madden spoil the announcement on Instagram with Stanley Tucci. They’ll do it like when they announce the new Doctor Who, with a big press release, or like when there’s a new Pope, with colored smoke coming out of the chimney of longtime producer Barbara Broccoli’s house.

The far more likely explanation is that they’re playing everybody so that people like us and people like Deadline will write stories saying “Is Richard Madden the new James Bond???” either to get fans talking about it and give him an edge in the actual casting or they’re tricking fans into getting excited about the idea of Richard Madden playing a spy so they’ll tune in to Citadel—the new Prime Video show where Richard Madden plays a spy. “Jk, everybody. I’m not the new James Bond. But I appreciate all the support, and now you should tune in to watch Citadel!”

Why else would Stanley Tucci be there? Why does it seem so awkward and off-the-cuff? It’s just two dudes having a laugh, that’s not how you announce the new James Bond. (As always, we reserve the right to edit this story later to make it clear we were joking in the event that Richard Madden is cast as the next James Bond.)

 
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