Barbara Broccoli doesn’t think a woman should play James Bond

No Time to Die is Daniel Craig’s last outing as James Bond, and now that the film has finally been released, fans can turn their attention to the next actor to play the secret agent. Over the years, we’ve seen some fans calling for James Bond to be played by a woman and/or a person of colour, but franchise producer Barbara Broccoli doesn’t think the character should be played by a woman.

Barbara Broccoli has controlled Eon Productions alongside her half-brother Michael G. Wilson for nearly thirty years and was recently the focus of a major feature over at THR. When the idea of James Bond being played by a woman was brought up, Broccoli said that although she’s open to any ethnicity or race playing the character, fans shouldn’t get their hopes up for a female Bond.

I think it will be a man because I don’t think a woman should play James Bond. I believe in making characters for women and not just having women play men’s roles. I don’t think there are enough great roles for women, and it’s very important to me that we make movies for women about women. He should be British, so British can be any [ethnicity or race].

Barbara Broccoli’s reasons for not wanting to cast a woman as James Bond are pretty similar to Daniel Craig’s explanation back in September. “The answer to that is very simple,” Craig said. “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?”

As the search for the next James bond won’t begin until next year, Barbara Broccoli isn’t ready to start talking about Daniel Craig’s replacement. “I want to let this film play and really celebrate Daniel’s incredible achievement that he has done over 16 years,” Broccoli said. “People always ask, ‘Oh, who’s the next James Bond?’ It’s like asking a bride as she’s going up to the altar who’s her next husband going to be. I don’t really want to think about who is going to be the next person until I absolutely have to.“

No Time to Die is set to be released on 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray on December 21st.