Broccoli tells The Guardian 007 ‘probably’ will remain a man

Barbara Broccoli

Eon Productions boss Barbara Broccoli told The Guardian that the cinematic 007 “probably” will remain a man.

“Bond is male,” Broccoli, 58, told the British newspaper. “He’s a male character. He was written as a male and I think he’ll probably stay as a male.

“And that’s fine. We don’t have to turn male characters into women. Let’s just create more female characters and make the story fit those female characters.”

Over the past few years, various publications have speculated about women who could play Bond. Among them: Vogue (“6 Women Who Would Make a Killer 007”), The Independent (“James Bond: The Women Who Could Play a female 007 When Daniel Craig Steps Down”), Maxim (“10 Amazing Actresses Who Could Play a Killer James Bond”) and Newsday (“Jane Bond: 10 actresses who could play a female James Bond”).

A number of recent pieces along this line were published when Broccoli and her leading man, Daniel Craig, were taking an extended break from the 007 film series. The most recent Bond film, SPECTRE, came out in the fall of 2015 while Bond 25 won’t be released until February 2020.

Still, the question has come up long before now. In the late 1990s, there was a gathering at Northwestern University near Chicago where 007 continuation author Raymond Benson spoke. One of the questions from the audience was when Bond would be played by a woman or a person of color.

In The Guardian interview, there was also this passage:

Yes, she concedes, Bond cannot be considered a feminist property, but mostly because people tend to “reference those early (Bond) movies. It was written in the 50s, so there’s certain things in [Bond’s] DNA that are probably not gonna change.”

“But look at the way the world has changed. And I think Bond has come through and transformed with the times. I’ve tried to do my part, and I think particularly with the Daniel [Craig] films, they’ve become much more current in terms of the way women are viewed.”

Broccoli previously has taken credit for updating the way the film 007 interacts with women. “Fortunately, the days of Bond girls standing around with a clipboard are over,” she said in a 2012 interview with the London Evening Standard.