Producer Barbara Broccoli insists James Bond will never be played by a woman

James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli has insisted a woman will never be cast as the British spy in a movie.
Daniel Craig is set to make his fifth and final appearance as the suave MI6 agent in No Time to Die, the upcoming 25th Bond film.

Speculation has been rife over who will replace the 51-year-old after he retired from the role, and fellow Brits including Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston, and Richard Madden have since emerged as frontrunners.

However, Broccoli is adamant that the role of Bond will never be played by a woman.

"He can be of any colour, but he is male," she told Variety, adding that she wants better and more interesting characters to be created for women. "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."

Last year, it was rumoured that Captain Marvel star Lashana Lynch was in the running to become the next Bond.
Yet, it was later revealed that she will instead be playing a character called Nomi who is assigned Bond's iconic 007 number when he retires from MI6.

No Time to Die, which also stars Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, and Jeffrey Wright, will hit cinemas from 2 April.