Pierce Brosnan Says He's Ready to Return to James Bond — But Not in the Role You Think
For fans of James Bond, we tend to think of Pierce Brosnan as the kind of guy who will come and save the world. But in the new Guy Ritchie-produced crime drama MobLand, Brosnan's character, Conrad Harrigan, is a mob boss who would burn down the world to save his own skin. And, this new role makes one wonder: could Brosnan return to the Bond franchise not as 007 himself, but instead, as a Bond villain?
"Could be," Brosnan tells Men's Journal when asked if he would play a Bond villain. "I mean, why not? It's entertainment. People would love it."
Brosnan's co-star in MobLand, Anson Boon, who plays his grandson on the show, chimed in at the thought of Brosnan as a Bond villain. "I'd watch it!"
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 31: (L-R) Pierce Brosnan and Anson Boon attend the MobLand Premiere after party at The Twenty-Two on March 31, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Paramount+)Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Paramount+
In MobLand, Boon plays the devil-may-care Eddie Harrigan, grandson of Brosnan's Conrad Harrigan. On the show, and in real life, it does feel as though the two are actually related.
"I felt like he was my grandson," Brosnan says of Boon. "He's such a great actor, he's so believable. And when you're working with wonderful actors like Anson, like Tom Hardy, they make you real because they believe who they are, and you want to believe who you are as an actor. It's an emotional chemistry."
The younger actor says he only had one real problem with acting with both Brosnan and Helen Mirren, who plays Maeve, Eddie's grandmother. "There's a scene in episode two, where I'm getting out of a car to greet them, and I wanted to smile. Because I loved working with them so much. But Guy [Ritchie] was like 'no, don't smile. 'It's much more juvenile if you don't smile, you're trying to seem cool.'"
Related: Review: 'MobLand' Gives Tom Hardy His Best Role Yet
Before taking on the role of Eddie in MobLand, Boon had previously played Johnny Rotten in the Sex Pistols series Pistol, directed by Danny Boyle. Brosnan commented on the Boon's swagger both on and off screen, "You're just kind of, too sexy for your shirt," he said. "That was the first scene I had with you. You were so good. You were so right there. I was like get over here you cheeky bugger!"
Brosnan also notes that although the show is set in the present day, he feels that MobLand has an otherworldly, out-of-time quality, something he says impacted all aspects of the show. "It has a kind of mythology to it," Brosnan explains. "I didn't feel I was in this period in time. It's like Macbeth. There is a theatricality to it all, which prevailed over the entire set and the cast."
MobLand airs new episodes on Sundays on Paramount+.
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