Ana de Armas says there’s no need for a female James Bond

With No Time to Die bringing an end to Daniel Craig’s tenure as James Bond, the search is on for a new actor to take on the iconic role. Over the years, there have been calls for the next James Bond to be played by a person of colour or a woman. It remains to be seen who will succeed Daniel Craig, but Ana de Armas doesn’t think James Bond should be played by a woman.

Ana de Armas appeared all too briefly in No Time to Die as Paloma, a CIA agent who assists James Bond. While speaking with The Sun, the actress said, “There’s no need for a female Bond. 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.” That said, Ana de Armas does believe that female characters in future James Bond movies could be more substantial.

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. That they’re given a more substantial part and recognition. That’s what I think is more interesting than flipping things.

Franchise producer Barbara Broccoli has previously stated that she doesn’t believe James Bond should be played by a woman either. “I think it will be a man because I don’t think a woman should play James Bond,” Broccoli said. “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].” Broccoli recently said that it will be “at least two years” before a new James Bond movie starts production. She did tease that the new movie will be a “reinvention of Bond” but that figuring that out takes some time.

Ana de Armas will next be seen starring alongside Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in The Gray Man. The action-thriller will be available to stream on Netflix on July 22nd, so be sure to check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray.