Jason Statham has shut down rumours he could play James Bond.
The 51-year-old actor is a veteran of the action genre and there has been speculation that he could be in the frame to take over the role of 007 from Daniel Craig when he hangs up his tuxedo after his upcoming fifth and final outing.
But, despite his experience of big screen blockbusters, Statham insists it’s very unlikely that the Bond producers will come to him.
When asked about his chances of playing the suave spy at the world premiere of his latest movie ‘The Meg’ in Los Angeles, he said: "No one is coming to me for that job!"
Statham – who has starred in action flicks such as ‘Crank’, ‘The Mechanic’ and ‘The Expendables’ franchise – attended the event with his fiancée Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, with whom he has a 14-month-old son Jack.
In ‘The Meg’, the British star plays deep sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor who is tasked with trying to stop the killing spree of a Megalodon, a giant prehistoric shark believed to have been extinct for millions of years.
Statham believes cinema goers are going to love the creature feature – which also stars Ruby Rose, Rainn Wilson and Li Bingbing – because it has a lot of classic scares and shocks.
He said: "You are going to love people getting eaten. And people like us not getting eaten."
Statham previously admitted he would be interested in playing Bond and boasted he could bring a different dynamic to the iconic part.
He said: "Could I do it? Absolutely. Would I do it? Absolutely. Is Daniel Craig a great Bond? Absolutely.
"Yeah, I’d make a decent Bond … But it’d be very, very different if I did it."