Bill Simmons believes Gerard Butler, not Daniel Craig, should have worn James Bond's tuxedo two decades ago. Simmons and co-host Van Lathan were deep in a discussion about Butler's filmography when the topic swerved somewhere unexpected. What followed was less a debate and more a gleeful thought experiment about alternate Hollywood timelines.

What Simmons said next did not sound like a joke; it sounded like a genuine pitch for a different Bond altogether.

Bill Simmons argued Gerard Butler and Daniel Craig stood at nearly identical career crossroads when James Bond was recast, making the decision closer than history suggests. Butler's rugged intensity, he claimed, could have pushed 007 in a grittier direction altogether.

"I would've rather seen him in Casino Royale, Skyfall, name a James Bond movie. I'd rather Butler," Simmons stated on the podcast.

He then added, "I think it would have been fun as Bond got like older and fatter from all the cigarettes and drinks," picturing a spy defined by wear instead of polish.

The exchange originated from The Rewatchables podcast, pulled from an episode built around Gerard Butler's Law Abiding Citizen. Co-host Van Lathan reacted with amusement, calling the argument wildly entertaining nonsense while admitting its strange pull. The pair weighed Craig's commercial dominance against Butler's uneven run with Olympus Has Fallen, framing the comparison as playful rather than serious. Lathan wondered whether a Bond-era Butler could still headline something like Den of Thieves, given the demands of playing the world's most famous spy.

20 Years Hence, Daniel Craig’s Iconic Bond Debut Gets a Worldwide Theatrical Return

While one Bond fantasy plays in hypotheticals, Gerard Butler's real career recently delivered a very concrete streaming victory.

Gerard Butler's Kandahar, which struggled at the box office and grossed a modest 9.4 million dollars worldwide, recently surged to the top of Netflix's charts. The film follows Tom Harris, a CIA operative in Afghanistan whose mission to sabotage Iran's nuclear program spirals into a desperate escape. Screenwriter Mitchell LaFortune drew on his own military intelligence background, giving the story an unusually grounded texture. Critics stayed lukewarm on release, yet streaming audiences clearly saw something theaters missed.

Beyond the explosions, Gerard Butler plays a father desperate to reunite with his daughter, giving the mission genuine emotional weight. The film also avoids flat villains, granting its antagonists real motives rather than convenient menace. Placed alongside The Gray Man and Heart of Stone, Kandahar rounds out a strong run of grounded spy thrillers on the platform. It is that same steady, weathered appeal that makes Bill Simmons' James Bond hypothetical impossible to fully dismiss.

“They Have Made Their Choice”: Gary Oldman Reveals the Next ‘James Bond’ Has Already Been Chosen

What are your thoughts on Gerard Butler's James Bond case and Kandahar's surprise Netflix run? Let us know in the comments.