" sexuality - switching quintessentially manful persona is n’t authorize woman at all , it ’s lazy and performative . "
SinceDaniel Craigdeparted the role in 2021, there’s been a lot of chatter about who might be the next James Bond.
Over the years, the 007 frontrunners have included British stars likeIdris ElbaandAaron Taylor-Johnson. However, a portion of fans have long wondered about the possibility of a woman stepping into the role, which, for context, was initially written as a man byIan Fleming, whose novels and short stories inspired the movies.
There aren’t yet any solid plans for thenext James Bond movie; however, at theCannes Film Festivalthis week,Halle Berry— who famously played Jinx inDie Another DayalongsidePierce Brosnanas Bond in 2002 — gave her totally honest thoughts on the prospect of a woman being cast as the elusive spy.
“I don’t know if 007 really should be a woman,” she said in response to a question fromVariety. “In 2025, it’s nice to say, ‘Oh, she should be a woman.’ But I don’t really know if that’s the right thing to do.”
You might expect some to feel disappointed by what Halle said, however, it seems the majority of fans are in complete agreement with the Oscar-winner. Many have pointed out that if we want to see women in roles like these, let’s leave Bond to the men and create some original female-led stories.One X postwith over 170,000 likes read: “hot take but i agree with her. we need more roles written for women, not more women in roles written for men,” while someone else suggested there’s “absolutely nothing in the name of feminism in gender-swapping the characters of existing IPs.”
Proving that there’s plenty of appetite and appreciation for female-ledspy movieswritten for women, people brought uppopular titleslike Jennifer Lawrence’sRed Sparrow, Charlize Theron’sAtomic Blonde, and Angelina Jolie’sSalt, which, believe it or not, was reportedly meant to star Tom Cruise, but wasrewritten for Angie.
Interestingly, Halle isn’t the only woman from the Bond franchise to refute the idea of a female Bond. Rosamund Pike, who was also inDie Another Day, toldUproxxin 2018: “Why should she have once been a man and now it has to be played by a woman? Why not make a kick-ass female agent in her own right?”
She said that to gender-swap the character after all these years would “underestimate a woman entirely,” explaining: “There’s nothing really about the James Bond character as written by Ian Fleming that resembles a woman. It’s a very masculine creation. So sure, make an unexpected, unapologetic, kick-ass, amazing female agent, and yes, I’ll play her.”
