Could Cillian Murphy be about to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond?

Could Ireland claim to claim the coveted 007 tuxedo for the second time?

Social media experts have been on the cutting edge of the rumor that Irish actor Cillian Murphy had apparently beaten Idris Elba and Tom Hardy for the role of the next James Bond.

The casting rumors reached their peak after the ratings of the Peaky Blinders were reduced to 100/30, placing him firmly in second place behind the group's leaders, Tom Hiddleston (Thor, the night manager) and Richard Madden (Bodyguard, Game of Thrones), which currently sits at 2/1.

According to Coral (an online betting agency), Murphy's odds dropped inexplicably by 7/1 in 24 hours – toppling public favorite Idris Elba, as well as Tom Hardy, Damian Lewis and James Norton.

Bond 25 is about to start firing in the south of Italy imminent under the job title of Shatterhandand would probably be Craig's latest outing as Ian Fleming's beloved British spy.

The film is scheduled to debut in cinemas in April 2020 and will make Craig the oldest Bond in history, with five films to his credit.

And although the roles are not yet finalized for the upcoming Bond movie (reports abound that Oscar-winning Rami Malek will play the role of a villain, while Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and Ben Whishaw should return), rumors have raged. about the next leader for months.

Elba himself has been busy answering questions about the cast, although he seems to have had fun playing with fans about unprovoked interest.

In August 2018, he tweeted "My name is Elba, Idris Elba" and then took a selfie (which many fans have considered impolite "clumsy") with Craig at the Golden Globes this year.

This probably did not help that many fan campaigns were in force, trying to bring their favorite actor closer to the coveted role.

If Murphy were selected, he would be the second Irish actor to play that role, after Pierce Brosnan's eleven years as British secret service agent (Brosnan, meanwhile, now turns his attention to a film in Abu Dhabi).

Three of the six men who have already won the Bond title are English (Craig, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton), an Irishman (Brosnan), a Scottish (Sean Connery), and a same native to the remote shores of Australia. (George Lazenby).

Even though the internet is not really impressed by the potential casting choice, it's easy to see the similarities between Murphy and Craig. Both men have the same piercing blue eyes and an indisputable reputation for wearing an expensive suit.

But for many, it's too difficult to look beyond Murphy's previous roles, in which he played several pretty convincing bad guys. The most remarkable are perhaps its scarecrow towers Batman beginsand as psychopathic assassin Jackson Rippner in the 2005 psychological thriller RedEye.

Some even deeply criticized the "Murphy as Bond" theory, citing the fact that Murphy was 43, which would mean that he would be 45 when the Bond 26 publication came up.

Apparently, Craig himself was 44 when he did Sky Fall, and it was a movie of "the old man," said Scott Mendelson, a Twitter user and movie critic.

Murphy himself has not yet commented on theories and, unlike Elba, it is unlikely that he will be so soon.