Is the current generation of leading men our best ever?

There was a time, not so long ago, when every young British and Irish actor was considered a Bond-in-waiting, and only as hot as their latest Ladbrokes casting odds. The likes of Tom Hardy (4/1 - peak odds), Tom Hiddleston (4/5) and Henry Cavill (2/1) were all classically handsome white men, presumably straight and privately educated – often Old Etonians, at that. Now here we are, late in the year 2025, and despite former James Bond Pierce Brosnan recently being named among GQ magazine’s Men of The Year, it’s clear our concept of “the leading man” has been thoroughly shaken and stirred.

Four years on from Daniel Craig’s final Bond outing, and at least three years out from the next 007’s debut, the most anticipated casting news of the era belongs not to long-time Bond producer Barbara Broccoli (who, in any case, ceded creative control to Amazon MGM Studios earlier this year), but to erstwhile Bond-film director Sam Mendes and his upcoming Beatles quadrilogy. In April it was announced that Paul, John, George and Ringo will be played by Paul Mescal (Normal People, Gladiator II), Harris Dickinson (Babygirl, The Iron Claw), Joseph Quinn (The Fantastic Four, Warfare) and Barry Keoghan (Saltburn, The Banshees of Inisherin) respectively. 

It could be argued that the Beatles have simply replaced the Bonds as a nostalgic mancave-of-the-mind for a certain vintage of British gent to retreat into. But wait: Mescal and Dickinson are also among the 12 actors featured on that internationally recognised annual movie-star ranking system, the Vanity Fair Hollywood cover – a full six of which are British or Irish. These include Oxfordshire-born Jonathan Bailey, who’s just made history as the first out gay man to be named People’s Sexiest Man Alive; British-Pakistani activist rapper turned Oscar-winning actor Riz Ahmed; and Callum Turner who, like Dickinson, hails from humble working-class London roots. Bond may now be an irrelevance, and British/Irish identity may encompass more diversity than ever, but Hollywood’s leading men are still derived disproportionately from these isles.

Newly released from their Bond-age, what do the current crop of leading men tell us about changing ideas around masculinity? For one, “this new generation are way more experimental and playful with their clothing choices,” observes Catherine Hayward, a leading red carpet stylist and former fashion editor for GQ and Esquire magazine, who’s worked with all these guys, plus some of the Americans too. Hayward points to the new abundance of photo ops on social media, plus more collaborative designer-star relationships, as the means through which actors can exercise creativity. “The everyman appeal of the actor – Paul Mescal in too-short [Gucci] shorts or Josh O’Connor in a quirky [Loewe] sweater – makes the often-unwearable accessible,” she says. “Throw in the stylist’s discerning eye and the chutzpah of a young actor at the beginning of his career, and you create red carpet magic.” 

The notion of playfulness also comes up when NYC-based casting director Susan Shopmaker shares her thoughts on the new generation. “It’s just … they’re game,” she says. “I don't think they're locked into being big, strong he-men …There is a kind of sensitivity, a thoughtfulness.” This is borne out by their varied artistic interests outside of acting, compared with the more narrow focus of the old guard. Many, like In Camera’s Nabhaan Rizwan and 1917’s George MacKay, have musical sidelines; Dickinson just wrote and directed his first feature, Urchin; and when I last interviewed O’Connor, we spent a good 10 minutes discussing his pencil sketches of Dungeness beach.

As well as giving early breakthrough roles to Dickinson, Ahmed and Jack O’Connell, Shopmaker served as the casting director on upcoming first world war-era drama The History of Sound, in which Mescal and O’Connor co-star as lovers. This is now such a non-event as to barely warrant comment. Both Mescal and O’Connor have previously played characters existing at various points on the human sexuality spectrum, and the same can be said of any interesting actor under 35. This year’s Bafta Rising Star, David Jonsson, for instance: he’s played straight in the endearing indie romcom Rye Lane, gay in HBO’s hit high-finance series Industry and an asexual android in sci-fi franchise reboot Alien: Romulus. 

That’s a big change from 20 years ago, when a Jake Gyllenhaal-Heath Ledger smooch in Brokeback Mountain made front page news. Meanwhile, other aspects of the leading man’s allure remain constant. Like that ineffable but indispensable star quality: “I love mystery in all actors,” says Shopmaker. “I want to know who you are, both in your character and as a person.” And of course a leading man still has to be – to quote Derek Zoolander – really, really, ridiculously good-looking. “But handsome is in the eye of the beholder. So that's a tricky one.”

Maybe, then, it’s the beholder, and not the beheld, who has really changed? As women gain increasing power behind the camera, what we see projected on our screens is less about who men want to be, and more about who (straight) women – and to some extent gay men – want to sleep with. “A lot of this boils down to sex,” agrees Shopmaker. “And I wonder if women have changed, in terms of allowing men to be more themselves in some ways? To honour their own feelings more?” 

It seems the leading man of today can no longer be confined by a tightly tailored tux or the sleek lines of an Aston Martin. He needs options, outlets, fluidity. And the leading woman of today? She’s all for it.