No one has spent a longer stretch of time in the role of James Bond than Daniel Craig. After vacating the role following 2021’s No Time to Die, nearly every handsome and charismatic working actor has been suggested to fill his position. Some viewers have even considered a list of women who could take on the role. But actress Helen Mirren recently told Saga Magazine that taking that route would produce an entirely different film.
“I’m such a feminist, but James Bond has to be a guy,” Mirren said. “You can’t have a woman. It just doesn’t work. James Bond has to be James Bond, otherwise it becomes something else.”
Former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, who stars alongside Mirren in the whodunit film The Thursday Murder Club, agreed. “Oh, I think it has to be a man,” he told Saga. “I’m so excited to see the next man come on the stage and to see a whole new exuberance and life for this character.”
Back in 2019, Brosnan wasn’t opposed to the idea of having a woman fill Bond’s shoes. “I think we’ve watched the guys do it for the last 40 years,” he told Hollywood Reporter at the time. “Get out of the way, guys, and put a woman up there. I think it would be exhilarating, it would be exciting.” But the actor also noted that the Broccoli family, long-time producers of the films with generational influence, wouldn’t allow it. “I don’t think that’s going to happen with the Broccolis,” he said. “I don’t think that is going to happen under their watch.”
Amazon MGM Studios took over the franchise earlier this year. With the move, longtime producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson — the daughter and stepson of producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, who first brought Bond to the big screen with 1962’s Dr. No and remained with the franchise until his death in 1996 — ceded creative control. They will retain the franchise’s intellectual property rights and remain co-owners of the Bond franchise.
In May, Amazon MGM Studios announced Spider-Man franchise producer Amy Pascal and Harry Potter producer David Heyman as the new Bond production team. “James Bond is one of the most iconic characters in the history of cinema,” they said at the time. “We are humbled to follow in the footsteps of Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson who made so many extraordinary films and honoured and excited to keep the spirit of Bond very much alive as he embarks on his next adventure.”
In No Time to Die, actress Lashana Lynch briefly assumes the role of Agent 007, but was met with racist and misogynistic backlash to the fleeting change. In 2021, Craig told Radio Times, “There should simply be better parts for women and actors of colour. Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?”