Following the general greater call for Hollywood’s biggest franchises to put women in the spotlight, the talk surrounding Daniel Craig being replaced as James Bond by an actress has increased quite a bit in recent months. There’ve been strong arguments on both sides of the fence, too, with those who support it saying that the move would reinvigorate the character in a contemporary setting while those who oppose it believing that it’d be disingenuous to flip 007’s gender.
One of those on the latter side is longtime Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, who recently admitted that she thinks of the character as “male” and believes he’ll “stay as a male.” A lot of people would obviously agree with that, but someone who certainly wouldn’t is The Affair star Dominic West.
Speaking in a recent interview, he brought up the possibility of the next James Bond being transgender, citing it as a “great idea,” saying:
There’s a very cool woman who’s the wife of an actor in [West’s recent film] Colette, who is a captain in the electrical engineers, the highest-ranking transgender soldier in the army. She’s done two tours of Afghanistan. She’s a beautiful blonde girl who could be Bond, yes. That’s actually a brilliant idea. They should have a transgender Bond because there are a lot of transgender people in the army. They’d be ideal because they can do everything. That’s a great idea! A transgender Bond.
It’s hard to imagine this happening anytime soon, if at all, especially given Broccoli’s aforementioned comments, but it’s certainly an interesting prospect. One which will no doubt continue to fuel all the talk around who’ll pick up the mantle once Craig hangs up his Walther PPK and steps away from the role.
Indeed, Idris Elba’s confirmation earlier this year that he won’t be the next 007 has really blown the field wide open, with Game of Thrones star Richard Madden and Superman actor Henry Cavill both finding themselves linked to the part in recent months. And though it’ll probably be quite a while longer before we hear of any official announcement on who the seventh James Bond will be, we can at least look forward to Daniel Craig completing his run with Bond 25, which lands in cinemas on February 14th, 2020 and will apparently subverts your expectations.
