While the general public is still waiting on pins and needles to see who officially takes the Bond torch from Daniel Craig, a leaked audition tape from Homelander himself, Antony Starr, gives us a peek into a world that might have been.
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00:00While the general public is still waiting on pins and needles to see who officially
00:06takes the Bond torch from Daniel Craig, a leaked audition tape from Homelander himself,
00:11The Boys' Anthony Starr, gave us a peek into a world that might have been.
00:15Starr put his hat in the ring to take over as the British super-spy for 2006's Casino
00:19Royale, Craig's first Bond film.
00:22The leaked audition tape was apparently ripped from an old VHS tape that the uploader salvaged
00:26from a recycling bin at an unnamed movie studio, and features a fascinating four-and-a-half
00:31minutes of Starr's original audition video from 2005.
00:34"...one rises to meet the challenge."
00:36It's actually kind of jolting to see a much younger Starr with brunette hair and his native
00:40New Zealand accent attempting to turn up the charm on his scene partner.
00:44As is franchise tradition, Starr's audition tape is actually a scene from a previous film
00:48in the franchise, in this case, a scene from 1995's Goldeneye, where Pierce Brosnan's debonair
00:53spy flirts with a femme fatale known as Xenia Onatopp, played by Famke Janssen.
00:58"...one rises to meet the challenge."
01:00Starr delivers alternate takes on certain lines, re-dos the entire scene from the top,
01:05and otherwise attempts to channel one of the most beloved Bond actors of them all.
01:09None of it even remotely resembles Craig's version of Bond, of course, and that's probably
01:13a solid indicator of why this particular audition apparently went no further.
01:17There's no arguing that Starr wasn't pitch-perfect casting for the supervillain Homelander, the
01:21dead-eyed sociopath who murders people like it's his day job in the Prime Video series
01:26The Boys.
01:27But would that have translated to a suave, sophisticated 007?
01:30A good guy?
01:32Not every fan was convinced.
01:33The discourse online seems to vary between respect for the attempt and lighthearted submissal.
01:38More than a few people pointed out that even here, 20 years ago, Starr already showed some
01:42of the mannerisms that turned Homelander into a love-to-hate character.
01:46But as Bond, well, it wasn't quite there.
01:49One comment actually gave an interesting perspective on why Starr might actually have
01:52been perfect for the role, just not at the time.
01:55They said,
01:56"...the guy acts like he's James Bond.
01:58That's not what they were looking for in 2005.
02:00This was the Bourne era."
02:02It's a fair point if you think about it.
02:03The franchise was moving on from the aloof, debonair stylings of Brosnan or Roger Moore
02:08in favor of Craig's straight-faced, more nihilistic rendition of the character.
02:12Had the studio been searching for a younger, less experienced version of Bond, Starr could
02:16have had a chance, judging by this tape, at least.
02:18"...the trick is to quit while you're ahead."
02:21"...there's one trick I've never learned.
02:23Perhaps you'll show me how it's done."
02:26Another person pointed out that, if he wasn't Bond, he could have made a pretty convincing
02:29Bond villain.
02:30The comment pinpointed Sean Bean's 006 from GoldenEye as an example.
02:35And yeah, we could see Starr as a loose cannon agent with something to prove, who ends up
02:38betraying the hero when you least expect it.
02:41Of course, viewers also couldn't help but have a little fun with the whole thing, especially
02:45since now it's pretty much impossible not to see Starr as Homelander.
02:48"...milk.
02:49Shaken, not stirred," read one comment.
02:52Another person noted that his stance in The Dark Doorway as he began the audition had
02:55Homelander written all over it.
02:57Clearly, opinions are split over whether Starr would have made a worthy James Bond or not,
03:01but one thing almost everyone agrees on is that things ultimately worked out for the
03:05best.
03:06Starr will next be seen in the fifth and final season of The Boys, which debuts on Prime
03:10Video sometime in 2026.
03:12Pleasure.
03:13I'm sure it was all mine."