‘James Bond’ Producer Barbara Broccoli Says Not to Expect a Female 007: ‘Bond Is Male’
As you may have noticed over the last few years, the only thing James Bond fans enjoy more than watching James Bond movies is speculating who will play him after Daniel Craig moves on from the franchise. Not that everyone wants 007 to be a him — many have called for the long-running spy series to pull a “Doctor Who” and cast a woman in the role made famous by the likes of Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton.
According to executive producer Barbara Broccoli, however, that won’t be happening anytime soon: “Bond is male,” she tells the Guardian in a new interview. “He’s a male character. He was written as a male and I think he’ll probably stay as a male.”
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“And that’s fine,” she adds. “We don’t have to turn male characters into women. Let’s just create more female characters and make the story fit those female characters.” Rosamund Pike, who first rose to fame as a Bond Girl in 2002’s “Die Another Day,” has expressed similar sentiments: “I think the character of James Bond is a man. He is really,” she said earlier this year. “Why not make a kick-ass female agent in her own right?”
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What’s more, Broccoli doesn’t think Bond himself needs to be a man in order for the franchise to be forward-thinking. “But look at the way the world has changed,” she adds. “And I think Bond has come through and transformed with the times. I’ve tried to do my part, and I think particularly with the Daniel [Craig] films, they’ve become much more current in terms of the way women are viewed.” Read her full interview here.
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