Barbara Broccoli, the longtime producer of the James Bond films, has definitively stated the rules of casting James Bond. According to the longtime custodian of the James Bond franchise, the secret agent can be played by a person of color, but not a woman.
“He can be of any color, but he is male,” Broccoli told Variety. “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.”
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The article also divulges that Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson, the two people who have the final say on everything James Bond, have been emboldened to shake up the Bond casting by Daniel Craig. They explained that when they cast Craig, they felt he could portray a more “realistic” Bond that reflected the issues of the 21st century.
“The world obviously had changed. We’d had 9/11, and the stakes were higher, and we felt we needed a more realistic Bond,” she said. “He brought flesh and blood to the character. Bond in the novel is a silhouette. Daniel has given him depth and an inner life. We were looking for a 21st-century hero, and that’s what he delivered. He bleeds; he cries; he’s very contemporary.”
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No Time To Die is to be the last film in which Daniel Craig will portray Bond. We’ll take that with a grain of salt, of course, as he did previously say that he wouldn’t do another one after Spectre, saying he’d rather “slash his wrists” than play Bond again.
There were rumors around that time that Idris Elba was going to be the next Bond, as Broccoli said that it was time for a non-white Bond, but that obviously didn’t happen. Elba has since also said that he’s not interested in playing Bond anyway.
No Time To Die hits theatres in April, 2020, and will have a soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer. It’s now also confirmed that Billie Eilish is the singer for the film’s title song.
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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com Bond Producer Explains Why James Bond Can Be Any Color But Not a Woman