Robert Pattinson Would Be the Perfect Gen Z Bond

Early in his career as a young adult, Robert Pattinson made a name for himself by telling ridiculous stories to reporters on press tours, most famously one about seeing a clown die in an explosion. So it was amusing to see him get a taste of his own medicine when he and co-star Jennifer Lawrence interviewed one another while promoting the (underrated!) 2025 film Die My Love. Amidst the back and forth, the very much millennial Pattinson found himself shocked that Lawrence refused to accept the fact that he is a member of Generation Z, an exchange that is now heavily memed.

Outside of Lawrence, no one would doubt that Pattinson is Gen Z. Presumably, one of those believers is director Denis Villeneuve, who is not only working with Pattinson for next month’s Dune: Part Three, but is also directing the next James Bond movie. According to a surprise bit of news dropped over the weekend, Villeneuve had Pattinson, along with Nicholas Hoult, screen test for Bond, adding two heretofore unconsidered names to the list for the next 007. While the others candidates, including Callum Turner and Jack Lowden, are also Gen Z, Pattinson has the opportunity to be the most Gen Z Bond possible.

To some, the words “Gen Z” Bond will provoke a strong, negative reaction. After all, author Ian Fleming created Bond as a product of the Cold War, a super spy whose various indiscretions were praised, in part because of the high stakes involved in saving the free world from the Communist threat. Those stakes allowed Bond to remain somewhat consistent, even if actors and tones varied wildly through the late ’80s. But Bond has struggled to find an identity since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and studios have struggled to make Bond relevant for each new set of viewers.

Timothy Dalton played an edgy crusader in the drug war for the late Baby Boomers. Pierce Brosnan‘s Bond had to get a good dressing-down from M at the start of GoldenEye, properly called out for his behavior in order to appeal to cynical Gen X viewers who rather just play the Nintendo 64 game anyway. For the millennials, Bond had become too silly and convoluted, so they got a grounded reinvention with Casino Royale, one that told introduced firm continuity to appeal to those who love shared universes.

With Daniel Craig‘s era coming to a definitive end with No Time to Die, Bond must once again change his style to appeal to Gen Z. Hits like Obsession prove that Gen Z has a thirst for the movies, but their interests differ from what’s come before. These moviegoers will show up for big blockbuster franchises like Dune, Barbie, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but their devotion to auteurs such as Christopher Nolan, stars such as Timothée Chalamet and Florence Pugh, and even distributors such as A24 shows that they are perhaps more savvy about their movie-watching than the two generations that proceeded them.

For those reasons, Robert Pattinson is the ideal choice to play Bond. With his lantern jaw and floppy hair, Pattinson has all of the requisite good looks we want in a 00-Agent. And he even did a dry run in a Bond-esque espionage thriller, albeit in more of the Felix Leiter role for Nolan’s Tenet. But it’s been a long time since Pattinson’s taken a role that relied only on his good looks. Like his Twilight franchise co-star Kristen Stewart, Pattinson’s been one of our most interesting working actors, choosing roles that allow him to be weird and even off-putting, working against his considerable charisma.

Based on his previous work, Villeneuve will probably give us a more serious spy thriller, perhaps something closer to Sicario, avoiding the campiness of Roger Moore or Brosnan’s eras. But he’ll also likely have lots of room for things to get weird, as demonstrated by even a more emotional movie like Arrival.

That’s where Pattinson can come in. He could certainly play the suave social player, who can saunter up to a baccarat table and give a charming wink to the woman sitting next to him. He can play the unflappable hero, who doesn’t lose his cool, even when strapped into some death trap. And he can play the brawler, the guy who punches out the villain’s minions, after disposing with other underlings via a spray of bullets.

But Pattinson can also add that extra layer of depth that Gen Z audiences want to see in their heroes. Take his version of Bruce Wayne in The Batman, the clearest comp to Bond. It wasn’t just that Pattinson’s Bond beat the ever-living crap out of some street toughs at the opening, nor was it just the way he decoded clues alongside Jim Gordon. It was the streaks of black eye-makeup that he revealed when he took off his mask, or the look of confusion that crossed his face when the Riddler acted like they were on the same side. This Batman wasn’t just a superhero; he was a broken man who dressed up like a bat to fight crime because he didn’t know what else to do.

Pattinson can do the same as Bond. His Bond wouldn’t just be the ultimate ’60s male fantasy, a guy who gets out of every death trap and gets into bed with every girl. His Bond would be a broken man who doesn’t fit anywhere else in society, a misfit who found acceptance not at Eton or in the Royal Navy, but serving as a blunt instrument of the empire.

With Pattinson in the lead, James Bond could be the weird, rich, and ultimately off-kilter Bond that Gen Z wants to see. And that’s because Robert Pattinson is Gen Z, no matter what Jennifer Lawrence or anyone else might think.