Ahead of his final appearance as James Bond in No Time to Die, Daniel Craig has shared his thoughts on potentially gender-swapping the character. Finally set to release in theaters this month after multiple delays, No Time to Die is the 25th installment of the James Bond franchise. It also serves as the fifth and final performance of Craig, the sixth actor play the superspy on the big screen.
There are no immediate plans to develop Bond 26, but with Daniel Craig retiring from the role, we can only imagine it will reboot the iconic character with a new actor. Many different names have come up from fans on who’d they want to see play James Bond next, from Idris Elba to Tom Hardy. The idea of gender-swapping Bond has also been floated, and in a recent interview with Radio Times, Craig gave his opinion on going this route.
“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?”
Daniel Craig appears to be saying he’d rather see women play original characters just as skilled as James Bond, as opposed to simply rehashing the superspy as Jane Bond. This could even relate to No Time to Die in which Lashana Lynch is rumored to take on the 007 code name following Bond’s retirement. Craig also credited co-writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge for her work on the screenplay and touched back on the idea of writers potentially changing up the character.
“She’s got devilish humour. Her influence permeates a lot of this film. She walked that fantastic line of keeping it as a thriller and being very funny. But Phoebe didn’t come in to change Bond. She came in to spice it up for sure, but she’s a Bond fan – she wasn’t about to take him in a different direction.”
Cary Fukunaga directed No Time to Die with a script co-written with Waller-Bridge, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade. Along with Daniel Craig in his final performance as Bond, the movie stars Lashana Lynch, Rami Malek, Ana de Armas, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear, and Ralph Fiennes. Craig addressed his time spent playing James Bond and bid his fellow cast and crew farewell in a video from the set that recently went viral.
Daniel Craig’s farewell speech after wrapping No Time To Die, his last ???????????????? James Bond film. ???? @007pic.twitter.com/xCqab3JK3z
— Filmthusiast (@itsfilmthusiast) September 17, 2021
“A lot of people here worked on five pictures with me, and I know there’s a lot of things said about what I think about these films, or all of those whatever. But I’ve loved every single second of these movies, and especially this one, because I’ve got up every morning and I’ve had the chance to work with you guys. And that has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” Craig said.
No Time to Die is set for a release in the UK on Sept. 30 while a US release will follow on Oct. 8. Meanwhile, regardless of whoever gets the role, it’s probably going to be a while before we see James Bond back in theaters. This news comes to us from Radio Times.
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