Chiwetel Ejiofor is set to star in Bond 24.
The '12 Years a Slave' actor is reportedly being eyed to play the main villain in the next movie in the iconic spy franchise, "multiple" sources told website The Wrap.
Though formal talks with Chiwetel have not yet begun, producers are keen for him to take the coveted role, though other actors are also under consideration.
However, representatives for the actor, Sony and MGM all declined to comment on the claims.
Sam Mendes is directing the as-yet untitled movie, which will see Daniel Craig return to play suave spy James Bond for a fourth time, while Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw are all also coming back to the franchise to play boss M, ally Moneypenny, and gadget expert Q respectively.
'Skyfall' writer John Logan is writing the script for the film, which is expected to be in production from November until next April.
As well as searching for a villain, casting is set to begin for two key female roles, including a new Bond girl and a Scandinavian with a "troubled past", who will be a brief love interest for the spy.
Ejiofor recently completed filming 'Z for Zachariah' and is preparing to start work on thriller 'Triple Nine.

Miranda Lambert was the big winner at last night's (06.04.14) American Country Music (ACM) awards, taking home three prizes.
The 30-year-old singer was nominated for seven awards, and picked up Female Vocalist of the Year, Vocal Event of the Year for 'We Were Us' with Keith Urban and Single Record of the Year for 'Mama's Broken Heart'.
Speaking after picking up Female Vocalist of the Year for the fifth year in a row, she paid tribute to her fellow nominees, saying: "I was just hanging out with Trisha Yearwood back there, holy crap, and I was standing next to Sheryl Crow, a complete and utter rock star.
"And Kacey Musgraves, I grew up with her. She wrote the single of the year this year. And Carrie Underwood's my buddy, y'all, and she's a phenomenon. I can't believe it, I'm so grateful and humbled. I love my job."
Tim McGraw had also been up for seven awards, but won just one, Video of the Year for 'Highway Don't Care' with Taylor Swift and Keith.
Meanwhile, George Strait picked up Entertainer of the Year, The Band Perry won Vocal Group of the Year and Jason Aldean was stunned to take home Male Vocalist of the Year for the second year running.
He said: "This is really unexpected.
"It was a shock last year to win it and even a bigger shock this year, I think. ... It's been one hell of a ride, so I hope it doesn't end any time soon."
The ceremony - which took place at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena - saw a number of collaborations, with the night's co-host Blake Shelton and Shakira performing their duet 'Medicine', Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks teaming with Lady Antebellum to perform the group's track 'Golden' and her band's 'Rhiannon', and Faith Hill sang 'Meanwhile Back at Mama's' with husband Tim McGraw.
Dierks Bentley and Sheryl Crow also hit the stage to perform 'I Hold On', while winners Miranda, Keith, George, and Lee Brice also performed.
Lucy Bryan also hosted the ceremony alongside Blake.

2014 ACM Winners:
Entertainer of the Year: George Strait
Male Vocalist of the Year: Jason Aldean
Female Vocalist of the Year: Miranda Lambert
Vocal Group of the Year: The Band Perry
Album of the Year: 'Same Trailer, Different Park', Kacey Musgraves
Video of the Year: 'Highway Don't Care', Tim McGraw featuring Taylor Swift and Keith Urban
Vocal Event of the Year: 'We Were Us', Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert
Vocal Duo of the Year: Florida Georgia Line
New Artist of the Year: Justin Moore
Song of the Year: 'I Drive Your Truck', Lee Brice
Single Record of the Year: 'Mama's Broken Heart', Miranda Lambert
Crystal Milestone Award: Merle Haggard

Danny Dyer plans to stay on 'EastEnders' for as long as possible.
The 'Human Traffic' actor joined the BBC One show as family man and landlord Mick Carter last December, and can already see himself becoming a soap stalwart.
Asked what the future holds, he told Attitude magazine: "Stay around in 'EastEnders'. So long as they allow it, I can flit out, go and do a movie, come back to Mick Carter. But at the moment, Mick's in my heart and I want to see where we can go with it..."
Danny, 36, admits he was a bundle of nerves on his first day on set and kept getting locked out of his dressing room.
He laughed: "I couldn't get into my dressing room, I kept forgetting the code. It was like my first day at school. I had to keep going back to the receptionist to say, 'Excuse me, you couldn't write the code down for my door, could you?' "
Danny has been a fan of the long-running soap for years and still can't get over the surreal experience of manning the Queen Vic's bar.
The actor joked: "It's mad. I still can't get my head round it. It's weird because there's f**k-all behind the bar so you struggle to make yourself look busy. There's little bottles of tomato juice that went off in 2004."

'X Factor' winner Sam Bailey is wary of people using her for her fame.
The 37-year-old singer, who was crowned winner of the 2013 series of 'The X Factor' last year, has admitted that since being thrust into the limelight, she's started to question who her real friends are.
She told BANG Showbiz: "I'm hearing from friends, 'Can you do me a favour and sign this for me?' I send a message back saying, 'I'm not doing it anymore. You shouldn't be asking me that. You're my mate.' I want everything to be normal."
Sam - whose debut album 'The Power of Love' was released last month - has also confessed that people have been trying to take advantage of her mother and she says she won't stand for it.
She said: "My mum's not got a lot of friends. All of a sudden I'm on 'The X Factor' and she said, 'Can such-and-such get a ticket?' and I go, 'Who's that?' And she goes, 'Oh she's my friend.' I say, 'How long's she been your friend?' and she goes, 'Oh, not long...'
"There you go. Obviously that person wants to be your friend for the wrong reasons. My mum's lived there for ages and she's not even batted an eyelid. I'm not having anyone take advantage of my mum."

'Southcliffe' and 'The IT Crowd' lead the nominations for this year's Arqiva British Academy Television Awards. The drama sees cast members Sean Harris, Rory Kinnear and Shirley Henderson contend for Leading Actor, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Act...

Mickey Rooney has died.
The veteran actor - who began his career when he was just 18 months old - passed away yesterday (06.04.14) aged 93 from natural causes following a lengthy period of ill health, TMZ reports.
In his lengthy career, the 'Hardy Boys' star was nominated for four Academy Awards and received two special Oscars for his work, and in 1939 was the film industry's biggest box office draw, largely thanks to his portrayal of Andy Hardy in a 15-movie series, and frequent pairings with fellow starlet Judy Garland.
He began his career in his parents' vaudeville act, Yule and Carter, and took on his first movie role as a cigar-smoking midget in 'Orchids and Ermine'.
Despite his Hollywood success, the 'National Velvet' star - who married eight times, including to legendary actress Ava Gardner - was declared bankrupt by the early 1960s, with much of his money going on a "reckless" lifestyle and alimony payments to his ex-wives.
However, he enjoyed a resurgence in popularity thanks to the 1977 movie 'Pete's Dragon' and Broadway show 'Sugar Babies' later that decade and continued to work regularly in TV, theatre and film, with his most recent appearance being in 2011 movie 'The Muppets'.
Summing his life up in his 1991 autobiography, 'Life Is Too Short', the diminutive star quipped: "Had I been brighter, the ladies been gentler, the Scotch weaker, the gods kinder, the dice hotter - it might have all ended up in a one-sentence story."

Gwyneth Paltrow wants to buy a new London home.
The 'Iron Man 3' actress and her estranged husband Chris Martin - who announced last month they were separating after 10 years of marriage - are planning to sell their £7 million family base in Belsize Park, north London, and the 41-year-old beauty will make a fresh start in an apartment close to the centre of the city.
A source told the Daily Star newspaper: "Gwyn wants a total change and a slick city pad is very appealing to her.
"She loves London and Chris is from the UK so they have plenty of family members here."
The blonde beauty - who has children Apple, nine, and Moses, seven, with the Coldplay frontman - has set aside £15 million to find a new home, even though she doesn't plan to live there full time.
The source added: "Gwyneth has told her estate agents that she'll pay up to £15 million. That'll buy her something pretty fabulous, even in London.
"She lives in LA now but regularly comes back here and it's important to her that Apple and Moses see their family.
"But Gwyneth doesn't want to buy a big family home on her own.
"She thinks it will be too big, and she likes the idea of being amongst the hustle and bustle of the city.
"But she'll be paying a high price for the location. She wants a view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament."
As well as buying a new home in London, it was recently claimed that both Gwyneth and Chris will share a Malibu beach house which they splashed out on before announcing their split, as the property has two "totally separate" living spaces.

Kodaline and Harry Styles have written a song about "unrequited love".
The Irish rock band have teamed up with the One Direction hunk for a secret romantic song, but they admit they don't know whether it will ever be released.
Guitarist Mark Prendergrast told BANG Showbiz: "Harry Styles came to two of our shows and he's a big fan and we ended up going to the studio and writing a song together.
"He's a really good lad. Very funny and a very good writer and singer. It was an unrequited love song but we're not sure what we're doing with it yet, but it's there."
The 'High Hopes' hit makers - consisting also of Steve Garrigan, Jason Boland and Vincent May - can also count Nicole Scherzinger as a fan after she turned up to a show they did in Los Angeles.
Mark explained: "We did a show in LA and we're in this big old theatre and it was a mad show. Nicole Scherzinger came along. We heard she might be coming and we were like, 'No, she's not coming'. Then I could see her from the stage and I was like, 'Jesus, there she is'.
"Apparently she's a huge fan, she emailed our manager asking for tickets and she listens to the album a lot. And we went to a friend's house after and she said she listens to our songs in the gym and in the bath tub."

Woody Harrelson saved Jennifer Lawrence from choking on the set of 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2'.
The 52-year-old actor reportedly performed the Heimlich manoeuvre on the Oscar-winning actress when a vitamin got stuck in her throat on the set of the science-fiction adventure movie.
A source said: "Jennifer had just downed a handful of her daily vitamins, swallowing them with water, but one got caught in her throat. Suddenly she started gagging, gasping, pointing at her throat as her face turned bright red. Everyone around her froze, not knowing what to do. But when a crew person screamed, 'Help,' Woody quickly ran up behind Jennifer and gave her a swift, hard slap on the back. When that didn't help, he wrapped his powerful arms just under her chest, gave two quick, strong squeezes, and the vitamin popped out of her mouth."
The blonde beauty thanked her co-star for saving her life and admitted she was worried she was going to die.
A source told the National Enquirer that she was overheard saying: "You literally just saved my life. I really couldn't breathe... I really thought I was gonna die right there."

Alesha Dixon insists she hasn't been "obsessively training or dieting" to lose her baby weight.
The 35-year-old singer only gave birth to her daughter Azura five months ago and she's adamant she won't be rushing to achieve her pre-pregnancy figure.
She said: "I haven't been obsessively training or dieting. i wanted to let natural take its course. I'm still nursing so I want to make sure that i'm good to myself. I always try to eat healthily, but I've not deprived myself of anything. I think I've got a lot of energy and probably that's what's helped me burn it off."
The brunette beauty, who is currently juggling her judging duties on 'Britain's Got Talent' with being a mother, admits parenthood was challenging in the first few weeks, but she's learnt to adjust pretty quickly.
She explained to The Sun newspaper: "It's a life-changing thing emotionally, hormonally... The whole experience is really testing. In the first couple of weeks, I felt overwhelmed, like I had to survive on no sleep. Before, when I had five or six hours sleep, I'd think, 'Oh I'm tried, I need more.' No, no, no! Five or six hours sleep is amazing!"

Aaron Paul thinks London is the "best city in the world".
The 34-year-old actor, who currently resides in New York, admits the UK capital is his favourite place to travel because he likes to explore the history of it.
He said: "London is arguable the best city in the world. New York is amazing, don't get me wrong, and there is history in New York, but it's not like the history you get in London. I was there for a few months, Notting Hill was my stomping ground. I've been here a bunch of times but mostly I like to walk round and get a bit lost."
The hunky star is also a massive fan of the South African restaurant chain Nando's, which is popular in the UK, and he can't help but try out their different chicken wraps when he's in Britain for work purposes.
When asked if he eats anything British, he explained to Stylist magazine: "I discovered Nando's! I like the spicy sauce, not the super spicy, painful experience, but the middle one. My God, it was so good. It's so good. I'll order half a chicken but then I started doing the chicken wraps, which are phenomenal."

Alesha Dixon admits she was never very "maternal".
The 35-year-old singer is surprised by how much she loves being a mother to her five-month-old daughter Azura because she never really had a desire to have a baby.
She said: "Every day, I look at Azura and I think, 'I can't believe she's mine.' I feel so lucky. I was never the most maternal one of my friends, but I've surprised myself with how much I love being a mum."
The brunette beauty hates being away from the youngster when she carries out her judging duties on 'Britain's Got Talent', but she admits the tot is never far away in her mind.
She explained: "When I'm at work, she's constantly on my mind so I'm always asking for photos and checking she's alright. It does pull at my heart. It's not easy, but I always say to myself, 'She's with her dad, she's with her nan, she's fine.' It's a juggling act, but millions of women do it."
Meanwhile, Alesha has been dating Azuka Ononoye for five years, but she admits she's not keen on taking their relationship to the next level by getting married just yet.
She told The Sun newspaper: "It's not that I don't care [for marriage]. Even though I was married before and it didn't work out, I believe in living the moment, so if I wanted to one day, I would totally be open to it. Never say never."