Bridgerton heartthrob Regé-Jean Page has responded to rumours he will replace Daniel Craig as the next James Bond. 

The actor, 38, said he found the intensity of being asked if he was going to play the next 007 agent 'strange' as he starred in a smouldering digital photoshoot for Esquire UK. 

Daniel stepped down from the franchise in 2021 and Rege became one of the frontrunners thanks to his stellar performance as  Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings in Netflix's Bridgerton. 

Regé is now at 4/1 in bookies odds to be announced as the new Bond, with fans hoping 2026 will be the year they finally find out who will play the spy. 

He said of the constant questioning: 'It is strange, it’s not normal. 

'How I navigate it is very much about what is useful, what serves me in my job, in being able to deliver what I need to deliver to an audience, and a lot of that is just grounding.

'It does get quite loud on the inside, like it was very, very intense, that combination of conversation, and I think I worked quite consciously to be able to navigate that environment with some normalcy for myself.' 

Bookies' predictions on who will play Bond are changing by the day, with Jacob Elordi one of the most recent favourites due to his smouldering role in the romance Wuthering Heights.

Other names have included Callum Turner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Idris Elba, Theo James, Jonathan Bailey, James Norton, Jack Lowden and Henry Cavill.

As of now, only a director has been linked to the upcoming Bond project, with Dune's Denis Villeneuve signed on for the movie.

The French-Canadian filmmaker will also serve as executive producer of the project alongside Tanya Lapointe.

The Bond franchise is no stranger to a lengthy hiatus - there was a six-year gap between 1989’s Licence to Kill, the final Timothy Dalton film, and 1995’s GoldenEye, the first to star Pierce Brosnan.

The iconic British mainstay has previously been limited to its big-budget blockbusters, with producing roles kept within the Barbara Broccoli family since the first film in 1962.

But last year the Broccoli family have handed over creative control over to Amazon MGM Studios - which was formed when Amazon bought Bond's parent studio in 2022 - after 30 years.

Fans cant next see Regé in romantic comedy You, Me & Tuscany with Halle Bailey, set for release on April 10. 

Directed by Kat Coiro, the movie stars Halle as Anna, a young cook who impulsively squats in a vacant Italian villa, and Regé as Michael, the owner's cousin

He said: 'There is something about these grown-up kids who don’t have their own parents, but who have found adopted family and eventually find each other. [There is a] three-dimensional human core and that’s hopefully what will pull you through a very fun and frivolous ride with some integrity.

'I think it’s important to normalise your own existence. To normalise seeing two Black leads in a film that is about a universal experience of escaping to find true love in Italy.'