As the race to grow to be the subsequent James Bond continues to rage on, many actors have expressed their curiosity in taking over the career-defining function.

The Bond odds are swamped with well-known Hollywood stars, together with Henry Cavill, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Tom Hardy, however British actor Rupert Friend is eager to tackle the function.

Speaking with Variety, the Pride & Prejudice actor defined that he was initially requested to play Bond, James Bond again in 2005 by the sequence' boss Barbara Broccoli - lengthy earlier than Daniel Craig had signed on.

He stated: "I was told: 'We'd love to talk to you about playing James Bond, but rebooting the series. We want to do him basically straight out of college.'"

Friend was enthralled by the thought, however he immediately had a nasty feeling about what got here subsequent.

READ ABOUT THE LATEST BOND ODDS HERE: Next James Bond - Three-horse race for new 007, Tom Hardy not included

"Basically they said," Friend remembered. "'You’ll do a screen test, and if it goes well, you’re signed up for three pictures which you won’t read and you won’t know who the director is. You’re basically handcuffed to it.'"

Friend admitted he felt he was "too young" and "didn't have the experience" nor any of the "hard knocks, emotionally, psychologically, physically, that a great Bond should have".

Shortly thereafter, he "politely declined" the function of James Bond. But now, he has modified his thoughts.

With the subsequent James Bond actor more likely to be introduced throughout the coming years, the hunt is on for Bond producers.

And Friend thinks his time has lastly come: "But very, very recently, last week, it started to come back into my consciousness that, let’s put it this way, maybe I’ve got the scars and the bruises now.

"From having actually been across the block or within the college of arduous knocks, but in addition having navigated movie units and administrators and troublesome conditions. You type of realise you’re at a degree the place you'll be able to take issues on that maybe you couldn’t earlier than."

At the time of writing, however, he isn't in the top 20 of names in Ladbrokes' betting pool.

Instead, at the top of the list is Taylor-Johnson who has a staggering 15/8 on becoming the next tuxedoed super-spy.

Just behind him is James Norton, with a strong 5/2.

Ladbrokes' Alex Apati said of the odds: "Punters are beginning to lean in direction of James Norton as soon as once more within the race to interchange Daniel Craig, and we have been compelled to slash his odds in consequence... a lot in order that he now heads the betting."