Is Tom Hiddleston A Lock To Play James Bond? UK Bookmaker Thinks So

Tom Hiddleston has been deemed too likely to become the next James Bond for a UK bookmaker to keep taking bets on the casting.

Tom Hiddleston As James Bond

In recent days, Hiddleston has become the 2-1 favorite to fill the shoes of James Bond following Daniel Craig‘s departure from the iconic role. When a massive gamble was made in support of Hiddleston getting the role over the weekend, the bookmakers at Coral felt it was necessary to suspend betting.

“There’s no smoke without fire, and following the big gamble on Tom Hiddleston in the last 24 hours, we’ve had no choice but to pull the plug on the market,” a Coral spokesperson said Sunday, according to the Guardian. “Earlier in the year there was a gamble on Idris Elba and Damian Lewis, but nothing has come close to the recent gamble on Hiddleston.”

Coral isn’t the only bookmaker suspending the 007 betting. BoyleSports also found a swell of betters backing Hiddleston’s casting and decided to suspend betting as well.

As recently as March, however, Hiddleston was flat out denying ever even being contacted by anyone connected to the Bond franchise.

“No one’s talked to me at all,” Hiddleston said. “I think it’s come about because in The Night Manager I play a spy, and we all know that in the iconography of British culture there is a spy that we all know, and his name is James Bond. So people have made the link.”

Hiddleston will next be seen on the big screen in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island as Captain James Conrad.