Saoirse Ronan has revealed the role she’d love to take on next, and it could bring her onto the same screen as her husband, Jack Lowden. The Irish actress, 32, has confessed that her real ambition is to play a Bond villain, and she’s not joking about it. Speaking to Empire, she said she wants her career to go darker, admitting, “I want to go dark. I said that I wanted to be a Bond villain and I’m dead serious.” She elaborated on why the idea appeals to her so much, pointing out how rare and dramatically rich a young female villain could be. As she put it, there’s something compelling about watching a woman channel pent-up anger and direct it somewhere, especially for the girls and women watching. It’s a kind of role she says she’d love to explore further.

The timing of her comments is what makes them so intriguing. Earlier this month, reports surfaced that Lowden was being strongly considered for the next James Bond, fueling speculation that the couple, who welcomed their first child in late 2025, could end up sharing the screen in the franchise. If that happens, they’d become only the second real-life couple to appear opposite each other in a Bond film, following Grace Jones and Dolph Lundgren, who starred together in 1985’s A VIEW TO A KILL. Whether Ronan’s dream villain role and Lowden’s rumoured casting actually align remains to be seen, but the idea alone has given Bond fans plenty to speculate about. The next installment, the 26th in the franchise, is still untitled and will be directed by Denis Villeneuve, best known for DUNE.