Who is Aaron Taylor-Johnson? Everything you need to know about the actor who could be the next James Bond

Here's everything you need to know about Aaron Taylor-Johnson from his film roles to his relationship.

English actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson has reportedly been offered the role of James Bond.

The 33-year-old actor is yet to accept the iconic part, but sources have told the Sun: “Bond is Aaron’s job, should he wish to accept it.”

The insider added: “The formal offer is on the table and they are waiting to hear back.”

Eon Productions, which makes the Bond films, is said to be preparing to shoot this year.

With credits including blockbusters such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bullet Train and Tenet, here is everything you need to know about Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Who is Aaron Taylor-Johnson?

Born in High Wycombe on June 13, 1990, Aaron Taylor-Johnson was raised by his stay-at-home mother Sarah and civil engineer father Robert Johnson.

Alongside his older sister Gemma, he grew up in the Buckinghamshire market town and attended Holmer Green Senior School as well as the Jackie Palmer Stage School.

He began acting at six years old and appeared in his first film, The Apocalypse, alongside the late Richard Harris when he was just ten.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Image: Getty

He told the Telegraph: “I was acting from the age of six. I was on stage in the West End, taken in by a chaperone. I lived a very strange childhood. Not a normal childhood. At age 10 I was doing films and going off for six months away from the family – my mum would come on some trips and my father and sister would be at home.”

His earliest acting roles were on stage, with a young Johnson appearing in productions from Macbeth to Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. He even left school in order to pursue acting as a career.

In a 2019 interview, Taylor-Johnson described the impact that choosing acting as a career had on him from a young age.

He said: “I worked in an adult environment from an early age; I had open, direct conversations with directors, producers, actors, where my opinions would be valued and matter. I grew up pretty quickly – I left school at 15.”

Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been married for more than a decade

It is perhaps one of the reasons he fell in love with his wife, filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood. Now both Taylor-Johnsons, the couple met while making the film Nowhere Boy, when he was around 19 and she was 42.

Addressing their 23 year age gap, he said: “When I met Sam I’d already lived a life far beyond that of most of my contemporaries – I didn’t relate to anyone my age. I just feel that we’re on the same wavelength.”

Aaron Johnson and Sam Taylor-Wood attending the premiere of Nowhere Boy. Image: Getty

He has previously described the attention that their 23 year age gap receives as “intrusive”.

The couple married in 2012, and share two daughters. Sam Taylor-Johnson has two children from a previous marriage.

What films has Aaron Taylor-Johnson been in? From Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging to Marvel

As a young actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson made appearances in television shows including the BBC’s 2004 adaptation of Feather Boy and 2007 ITV drama Talk to Me, as well as the mini-series Nearly Famous.

However, his earliest onscreen role was in The Apocalypse, a biblical television film which was released in 2002. The same year Taylor-Johnson appeared alongside Sean Bean in Tom & Thomas, a British family film, in which he played a set of identical twins.

As a child, one of his most notable acting parts came in 2003 martial arts comedy Shanghai Knights. Starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, Taylor-Johnson appears in the film as a pickpocket who is later revealed to be Charlie Chaplin.

In 2006, he appeared in several films including The Illusionist which starred Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and Jessica Beil. In the mystery movie, he portrayed a young version of Norton’s character during flashback scenes.

In 2008 he starred as the love interest in teen rom com Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging which was directed by Gurinder Chadha.

On casting Taylor-Johnson, Chadha said: “There was an actor that the head of Paramount really wanted; he was nice enough, good looking, and he had a bit of a name.

“But then Aaron auditioned and I couldn’t get him out of my mind. Aaron was 16. He wasn’t a polished diamond, he didn’t do any kind of charm or sucking up or anything like that. He came in, he did his thing, he improvised a bit and then he left.

“He just became this person and I thought, ‘This kid is amazing, he really deserves it.’ So I went into battle for him.”

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008).

She compared him to Keira Knightley, who Chadha had cast in her 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham, saying she had “no doubt he was going to be huge”.

“I get super excited when I see someone with talent, with something different. I’d seen the same thing with Keira Knightley, when she came in with 40 other girls [for Bend It Like Beckham], and I saw that with Aaron. I had no doubt that he was going to be huge because of his sense of presence,” she said.

Her feelings on the actor were echoed by director Matthew Thompson, who cast a then 17-year-old Taylor-Johnson in his film Dummy. He described the “seriousness” of his approach and how his “real modesty and sweetness” landed him the role of a budding DJ caring for his young brother after the death of their mother.

It was following this role that he was cast in Nowhere Boy, a 2009 film directed by his now-wife Sam Taylor-Wood. Documenting the life of John Lennon, his performance earned him several awards nominations.

In 2010, Taylor-Johnson then starred in superhero movie Kick-Ass which then saw him nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. He also appeared in the 2013 sequel, Kick-Ass 2.

Aaron Johnson starred in Kick-Ass. Image: Getty

Around the same time, Aaron Taylor-Johnson also appeared in British thriller Chatroom, period drama Albert Nobbs and a music video for R.E.M.

In 2012, Taylor-Johnson appeared as Count Vronsky in period drama Anna Karenina alongside Keira Knightley and Jude Law. Later that year, he starred in action thriller film Savages alongside Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively and Benicio del Toro.

One reviewer highlighted the dynamic between Taylor-Johnson and Kitsch, and how much the actor appeared to have grown on screen. He said: “I think Johnson is maturing quickly on film, and the sheer difference between his presence in ‘Kick-Ass’ and his presence here would make it seem like a decade or more has passed since that first film.”

A few years later, and after returning to his Kick-Ass role, Taylor-Johnson starred in 2014 blockbuster Godzilla alongside Elizabeth Olsen, who played his onscreen wife. The pair were then reunited on screen, this time as siblings, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Taylor-Johnson made his debut as Pietro Maximoff, or Quicksilver, in the post-credits scene for Captain America: The Winter Soldier alongside Olsen who plays the Scarlet Witch. The duo also appear together in 2015 Avengers sequel, Age of Ultron.

Actress Elizabeth Olsen and actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson speak onstage. Image: Getty

A year later, the English actor made waves with his role in Nocturnal Animals. The neo-noir thriller swept the awards season with Taylor-Johnson taking home the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.

His next role was in the 2017 war film, The Wall, where Taylor-Johnson was cast alongside John Cena.

In 2018, Taylor-Johnson starred in Outlaw King, a historical drama about the Scottish Wars of Independence, as James Douglas. Later that same year he starred in the psychological drama A Million Little Pieces, which was directed by his wife.

First day of filming in an estate outside Linlithgow, for Outlaw King, 2017.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s next film credit was for his supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which was released in 2020.

In 2021, Taylor-Johnson appeared in British spy-action film The King’s Man. He then starred as British assassin Tangerine in the 2022 action comedy film Bullet Train, alongside the likes of Brad Pitt, Joey King and Brian Tyree Henry.

Taylor-Johnson will appear in several films which are set to be released in 2024 including The Fall Guy, Kraven the Hunter and Nosferatu.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Marvel roles

Taylor-Johnson’s role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was fairly short-lived, with his character Quicksilver hastily killed off in Avengers: Age of Ultron, likely related to Evan Peters’ version of the same character appearing in the X-Men films.

However, this isn’t the end of the actor’s relationship with Marvel.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars in upcoming Sony film Kraven the Hunter

Instead Taylor-Johnson was cast as Kraven the Hunter in the upcoming film of the same name. Initially teased in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), this film will not be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Instead it is intended to be part of Sony’s own separate universe of Marvel films including those such as Morbius and Madame Web.

After delays due to Hollywood strikes, Kraven the Hunter will be released on August 30, 2024.