Nearly everyone agreed last fall that Ana de Armas was one of the best parts about “No Time to Die,” Daniel Craig’s final outing as super-spy James Bond, so naturally the actor is getting asked a lot of questions about who should replace Craig in the next 007 movie. De Armas doesn’t have a name, but she does think Bond should remain male.
“There’s no need for a female Bond,” de Armas recently told The Sun. “There shouldn’t be any need to steal someone else’s character, you know, to take over. This is a novel, and it leads into this James Bond world and this fantasy of that universe where he’s at.”
“What I would like is that the female roles in the Bond films, even though Bond will continue to be a man, are brought to life in a different way,” she added. “That they’re given a more substantial part and recognition. That’s what I think is more interesting than flipping things.”
De Armas’ thoughts echo a similar opinion shared by her “No Time to Die” co-star and Bond himself, Daniel Craig, last year. Addressing whether or not Bond should be a woman, Craig told Radio Times, “The answer to that is very simple. There should simply be better parts for women and actors of color. Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?”
Bond becoming a woman is highly unlikely as the franchise’s longtime producer Barbara Broccoli agrees with Craig and de Armas. “He’s a male character. He was written as a male and I think he’ll probably stay as a male,” Broccoli previously told The Guardian. “And that’s fine. 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.”
Not every member of the Bond family agrees. Lashana Lynch, who also starred in “No Time to Die,” told The Guardian ahead of the movie’s release that Bond “could be a man or woman” or “white, Black, Asian, mixed race,” adding, “They could be young or old. At the end of the day, even if a 2-year-old was playing Bond, everyone would flock to the cinema to see what this 2-year-old’s gonna do, no?”
As for the next Bond, fans will have to continue waiting for the much-speculated-about successor. Broccoli said last month that production on the 25th Bond movie won’t begin for at least two more years and that “nobody is the running” yet to take over 007.
“No Time to Die” is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.