Naomie Harris insists she has no idea if Daniel Craig will return as James Bond.
The 40-year-old actress may have starred as Moneypenny in the last two outings of the spy franchise, ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Spectre’, but she insists she is as much in the dark about the future of the franchise as its fans.
In an interview with Total Film magazine, she said: "I don’t know. Everyone keeps asking and I’m like, ‘Guys, I don’t know.’
"No one believes me but genuinely, I really don’t know. I really hope he comes back. I hope he does. But who knows at this point? I think the only person who knows, to be honest, is Daniel."
Even though she is part of the 007 franchise, Naomie admits she has equally been drawn into speculation about who will be Bond in the next film, though producers have insisted to her they are not even thinking about the project yet.
She said: "I love Barbara Broccoli and Stephanie [Wenborn] and the Eon team and obviously Michael Wilson. I met them recently and said, ‘What’s going on guys? Because everybody keeps asking me.’ I was believing the hype. I was like, ‘Is it Tom Hiddleston? What’s going on?’ They were like, ‘Naomie, nothing is happening.’ Because they’re doing another film at the moment. They were like, ‘We are focusing on this film. We have nothing to do with that.’ "
The contingency plan being made to find a new Bond comes because Daniel has reportedly refused to contact studio executives to confirm or deny his involvement with the next movie.
A source said last month: "Daniel and MGM are currently at a stalemate with him having not spoken to them about Bond.
"They have offered a bigger wage deal, and asked about his filming availability to his reps in 2017, but as of yet they have not spoken to Daniel."
Names in contention to take over from the 48-year-old actor include ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ actor Tom Hardy, ‘Poldark’ star Aidan Turner, ‘Thor’ actor Tom Hiddleston and Luther’s Idris Elba.