For the record, EON Productions and the producers behind the Bond franchise have not announced any replacement for Daniel Craig as 007.

In fact, when have you ever - EVER - heard of a replacement actor for an established character like Bond being announced before a movie featuring the previous actor playing that character was released? Officially or otherwise?

Exactly.

Anyway, the latest rumours come from the Daily Express, who are about as trustworthy when it comes to reporting stories like this as they are about anything else. Don't believe us? The Daily Express has a well-known reputation for publishing conspiracy theories as front-page news, has received several complaints from the Press Complaints Commission in the UK, not to mention being named as a purveyor of hate speech by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

So, yeah, not exactly the most trustworthy of sources.

To cast even further doubt on the veracity of this, the Daily Express isn't even the actual source - they're claiming that a blog called the Vulcan Reporter has the scoop. To the best of our knowledge, the Vulcan Reporter has not been named in any previous scoops or exclusives, and has a minimal social media presence at best. They also appear to have no track record of producing verified rumours or, for that matter, have any particular interest in the Bond franchise.

All this just illustrates how roughly 75% of all rumours that come through online often end up being completely fictitious. What's more is that the Bond franchise, in particular, seems to hoover up some of the most outlandish rumours out there in the internet.

Could Tom Hardy be cast as Bond? It's entirely possible, but unlikely. For one, he seems just too obvious a choice for the role. On top of that, he's 43 and that's a little too old for the role. Not only that, placing him into a major franchise would likely preclude him from doing other movies, so it seems an odd choice for him.

On top of that, there's a laundry list of other actors - James Norton, Aidan Turner, Richard Madden, you name it - that are more likely than Tom Hardy.