"Why Should A Woman Play James Bond?" Daniel Craig Says

With Daniel Craig wrapping up his run as James Bond in No Time To Die, his fifth appearance in the lead role, the actor has now commented on the future of the series and specifically how a woman probably should not play James Bond next.

In an interview, Craig said he is not on board with the idea of a woman playing James Bond, but commented that women and people of color should get other roles of a similar stature.

"The answer to that is very simple," he told Radio Times. "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?"

While Craig isn't keen on a woman playing James Bond, there does seem to be a change in the works for 007. Reports have suggested that Lashana Lynch plays 007 in No Time To Die, taking over the codename from James Bond.

In another shift, Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge was hired to write for No Time To Die, becoming just the second woman ever to be a credited writer on a James Bond film.

In the Radio Times interview, Craig said Waller-Bridge has "devilish humor" and that "her influence permeates a lot of" No Time To Die. "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," Craig said.

In 2020, James Bond series producer Barbara Broccoli said she would like to create more female characters in the 007 universe, but James Bond will always be a man for as long as she controls the series.

"He can be of any color, but he is male," Broccoli said. "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."

Broccoli's comments came after Pierce Brosnan, who portrayed the legendary super-spy James Bond in four 007 movies, said it was time for a woman to play Bond.

No Time To Die arrives in UK cinemas on September 30 before coming to the US on October 8--tickets are on sale now. True Detective's Cary Joji Fukunaga directed No Time To Die, which features Oscar winner Rami Malek as the villain. Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Jeffrey Wright, Naomie Harris, and Rory Kinnear all return from earlier entries, while Lynch (Captain Marvel) and Ana de Armas (Knives Out) join the cast.

Outside of the film series, the developers of the Hitman video game franchise are making a James Bond game that will tell an original origin story for the British superspy.