Jack Lowden on Bond rumours: ‘Replacing Daniel Craig is a tough job’

Lowden said that as a fan of the long-running spy franchise, it still feels “bizarre” to think about someone else stepping into 007’s Aston Martin, as he “grew up” watching Craig on the big screen.

“It’s quite bizarre because it feels like Daniel Craig is still Bond so even to… as a fan, even to sort of be contemplating anyone else playing him… I mean, I don't envy them, how they're gonna replace him because I still think he is [Bond],” he said.

“He was mine. That's who I grew up with.”

His Slow Horses co-star Kristin Scott Thomas suggested that Bond stars often seem to be irreplaceable, until fans get used to the next iteration of the classic character – and backed her colleague in the race for 007, suggesting he’d be “very good” in the role.

“I'm old enough to remember when Sean Connery was Bond and Sean Connery then wasn't Bond and it was like, ‘Who else can be Bond?’ – but they do, they turn up,” she told RadioTimes.com.

“It’s a tough job they’ve got,” Lowden added, prompting Scott Thomas to reply: “It’s a very, very tough job. But you’d be very good at it.”

Lowden stars as secret agent River Cartwright in Slow Horses, the Apple TV+ spy drama based on the novels by Mick Herron, alongside Scott Thomas as icy MI5 deputy leader Diana Taverner.

Oscar winner Gary Oldman also appears as the irascible Jackson Lamb, leader of a group of thwarted agents working at Slough House, an unloved department of the security services where disgraced operatives are sent to sit out the rest of their careers.

In the second season, Cold War secrets are uncovered which threaten to bring chaos to London, and River and his fellow so-called ‘slow horses’ must try to avert catastrophe.

The Crown’s Jonathan Pryce plays River’s grandfather and mentor, with Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Dustin Demri-Burns, Christopher Chung, Freddie Fox and Samuel West all returning for season 2.

Among the new faces joining the drama are This Way Up’s Kadiff Kirwan and Peaky Blinders’ Aimee-Ffion Edwards.

Additional reporting by Morgan Jeffery

Slow Horses season 2 is on Apple TV+ from 2nd December, with new episodes weekly – you can sign up to Apple TV Plus here.

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