Eon Productions head Barbara Broccoli has been adamant that James Bond will never be played by a woman, with the producer repeatedly outlining that creating strong characters for women in the franchise would offset the notion of gender-swapping one of the most iconic roles in the history of cinema.
With No Time to Die now in the rear-view mirror after a massively impressive run at the box office, where it became the highest-grossing Hollywood blockbuster to hit theaters since December 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it won’t be long until the casting talk for the next iteration of 007 begins to heat up.
Amazon purchasing MGM has seen the Bond team admit that the series faces a critical juncture, and with the 60th anniversary of Dr. No coming next year, the future of MI6’s finest will arguably be under more intense scrutiny than ever before.
While Broccoli isn’t interested in a female 007, during an appearance on the Girls on Film podcast, she did reveal that the idea of a nonbinary performer assuming the mantle isn’t out of the question.
“Who knows, I think it’s open, you know? We just have to find the right actor.”
Those comments are inevitably going to kick up a stink among the more unsavory subsections of the 007 fanbase, but James Bond has always been one to move with the times in order to remain relevant, so it’s not the craziest thing we’ve ever heard.