Longtime producers of the James Bond franchise has revealed that MI6 agent 007 (James Bond) “can be of any color,” but will never be female.
“He can be of any color, but he is male,” longtime Bond franchise producer Barbara Broccoli told Variety.
According to Broccoli, women deserve better and fresher roles than James Bond.
“I believe we should be creating new characters for women — strong female characters. I’m not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that,” she said.
Rumors were fueled that new Bond girl Lashana Lynch would become the next agent 007 after the release of Daniel Craig’s last Bond film “No Time to Die,” which will be released on April 2 according to Fox News. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Broccoli previously told The Guardian that Bond will never be a woman
The Broccoli family has been in control of the Bond film franchise since it began in the ’60s, Variety reports. The family produced the Bond film arcs of both Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.
She said, “for better or worse” she and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson are custodians of Bond’s character, and they are taking that responsibility seriously.
James Bond is one of the entertainment industry’s oldest and most successful franchises. Forbes reports that the 24 Bond films have made over $16 billion when adjusted for inflation.