Top actor Jamie Dornan has side stepped rumours he could be the next 007.
The Co Down man is constantly rumoured among fans to become "the next Bond", alongside the likes of Idris Elba, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Richard Madden.
Rumours about the Hollywood hunk replacing Daniel Craig as 007 are likely to heat up once again with the release of Heart of Stone, a spy thriller coming to Netflix this summer.
READ MORE: Jamie Dornan 'emails' his annoyance to person who criticised his Northern Irish accent
As he gears up for the release of the streaming spy film, Dornan admitted to Games Radar that he doesn't concern himself much with the theories.
He said: "I've been in that conversation for a good couple of years now. Sometimes I'm more in that conversation than other times. It tends to be if you have a movie coming out," he explained.
The actor went on: "I imagine that if people are making noise about [Heart of Stone] when it comes out on Netflix, and hopefully lots of people are watching it, then you enter that conversation again in a bigger way than you were before the movie came out.
"If people want to have your name, that's cool. I just am not one of those people who give it a huge amount of thought."
But bookies BoyleSports have sliced the odds on the Belfast actor playing the secret service spy to 16/1 from 33/1.
It’s not the first time support has arrived with the bookies for Dornan to be Bond, but this is the lowest price he has been for some time.
Along with the support for Dornan, a new name has surfaced in the betting with Paapa Essiedu starting to gain support. The English actor, who is best known for his performance in ‘I May Destroy You’ is now 7/2 after his odds were slashed from 10/1 following the backing of actor Colin Salmon.
Sarah Kinsella, spokesperson for BoyleSports, said: “Replacing Daniel Craig will not be easy, but punters seem to think an Irish man is up to the task as Jamie Dornan has been backed into his lowest odds ever. The fact he’s starring in a new spy thriller seems to be inspiring punters who are beginning to get behind him to be the next 007.”
But fans may have to wait as producer Barbara Broccoli admitted at the BAFTA Film Awards in February that her team hadn't "even started casting" at the time.
She told LadBible in February: "No, we haven't even started casting yet. There isn't even a script.”
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