Saoirse Ronan Wants to Be the Next Bond Villain — And She Says She’s ‘Dead Serious’

Saoirse Ronan has spent much of her career playing complicated, deeply human characters.

For James Bond, she'd rather be the person trying to kill him.

The four-time Academy Award nominee has once again made her ambitions for the 007 franchise perfectly clear, telling Empire that she wants to explore something considerably darker.

“I want to go dark,” Ronan said, before reiterating that her desire to play a Bond villain is something she's taking seriously.

And this isn't simply an actor casually mentioning Bond while promoting another movie.

Ronan has been talking about wanting to play a 007 antagonist for years.

With Amazon MGM now assembling the creative team for the first Bond movie of the post-Daniel Craig era, her timing couldn't be much better.

Ronan also has a pretty clear idea of the character she'd like to play.

She isn't particularly interested in becoming another glamorous character whose relationship with Bond eventually becomes romantic.

She wants an adversary.

Speaking previously about her Bond ambitions, Ronan explained that she liked the idea of playing a female villain with her own agenda — somebody determined to take Bond down rather than simply fall for him.

Her latest comments expand on that idea.

Ronan told Empire that she thinks a young female villain could be dramatically interesting, especially as a chance to channel anger into a genuinely darker character.

For an actor known for Lady Bird, Little Women, Brooklyn and Atonement, watching her chew through the scenery opposite 007 would certainly be a change of pace.

And we're rather here for it.

Before the internet inevitably turns this into SAOIRSE RONAN IS THE NEXT BOND VILLAIN, there's an important distinction.

She isn't.

At least, not yet.

Amazon MGM Studios has not announced the villain for the next James Bond movie, nor has it announced who will replace Daniel Craig as 007.

What we have is an extremely accomplished actor making an unusually public pitch for the job.

Whether Denis Villeneuve, Amazon MGM and the film's producers are listening is another question entirely.

For now, Ronan's involvement remains something she'd like to happen rather than an actual casting announcement.

Ronan's comments are particularly timely: the next era of Bond is finally moving forward.

Amazon MGM Studios has Denis Villeneuve directing the next instalment, while Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is writing the screenplay.

That combination alone makes the project fascinating.

Villeneuve has spent the last decade establishing himself as one of Hollywood's most distinctive large-scale filmmakers through movies including Arrival, Blade Runner 2049 and the Dune films.

Knight, meanwhile, knows his way around morally complicated characters.

What we don't yet have is arguably the biggest piece of the entire puzzle:

James Bond.

A collection of actors continues to be associated with the role in reports and speculation, but Amazon MGM hasn't formally announced Daniel Craig's successor.

Until that happens, practically every major Bond casting story needs a rather large asterisk attached.

This could get even more interesting.

Ronan's husband, Slow Horses star Jack Lowden, is one of the actors whose name has been linked with becoming the next James Bond.

Again, that's not confirmed casting.

But it creates a frankly irresistible hypothetical.

Saoirse Ronan trying to murder her real-life husband for two and a half hours in a Denis Villeneuve Bond movie?

We'll take two tickets.

Ronan has championed Lowden for Bond before much of the current speculation around his name emerged. Recent reporting has once again linked him with the role, although Amazon MGM remains silent about who will ultimately wear the tuxedo.

It's entirely possible neither actor ends up in the movie.

But if somebody eventually announces Jack Lowden as James Bond and Saoirse Ronan as his villain, the marketing department can probably take the afternoon off.

This is perhaps the most interesting part of the whole story.

Saoirse Ronan doesn't immediately scream Bond villain.

Which is precisely why we'd like to see it.

The franchise has given us everything from megalomaniacs living inside volcanoes to cyberterrorists, assassins and former MI6 agents nursing enormous grudges.

But some of Bond's best villains work because the actor isn't merely playing “evil.”

They have charm. Intelligence. Humour. Vulnerability. And, occasionally, the uncomfortable sense that they might have a point buried somewhere underneath all the murder.

Ronan has spent her career finding those sorts of contradictions in characters.

Give her an intelligent antagonist with a genuine reason for wanting Bond gone, and Villeneuve could potentially have something considerably more interesting than another disposable bad guy plotting world domination.

There's a huge difference between wanting a role and getting one.

Actors publicly pitching themselves for franchises happens all the time.

Most of those campaigns disappear without another word.

But this one feels unusually easy to imagine.

Ronan is a four-time Oscar nominee, she's actively looking for an opportunity to play darker material, and she's describing a Bond villain who sounds more interesting than simply being “the evil woman.”

More importantly, she genuinely seems to want it.

So no, Saoirse Ronan isn't our next Bond villain.

But Denis, mate...

Give her an audition.