Daniel Craig: No, a woman should not be given the James Bond role

In an interview that will likely cause the woke left to go into conniptions, Daniel Craig, who portrays Ian Fleming's international British spy James Bond in the newest installment of the franchise set to release next month, told Radio Times that James Bond should not be played by a woman.

Craig, whose fifth and final turn as Bond in "No Time to Die" will hit U.S. theaters Oct. 8, faced questions from the magazine about who should replace him and told the outlet that a woman should not be tapped for the role.

What did he say?

The debate about who should follow Craig as the next 007 has been ongoing since the day the star revealed "No Time to Die" would be his last Bond film.

Speculation has swirled around a number of Englishmen as possible replacements, including Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston, and Idris Elba, who would be the first black man to play Bond.

But as society has become more woke, discussion has grown about the possibility of a woman being given the job.

And the speculation that the next Bond might be a Jamie instead of a James was given more weight after rumors that Lashana Lynch's character, a female MI6 agent who works alongside Craig's Bond in the upcoming film, inherits the 007 codename during the movie from a retiring Bond, the Guardian reported.

Asked about whether she will be the next Bond, Lynch told the Guardian, "Nooo! You don't want me!" But she added that things about the Bond franchise could be changing.

"We are in a place in time where the industry is not just giving audiences what it thinks the audience wants," she told the paper. "They're actually giving the audience what they want to give the audience. With Bond, it could be a man or woman."

Craig, however, told Radio Times, that the job should be reserved for a man — though he was quick to add that women "should be offered roles of this calibre," the outlet reported.

"The answer to that is very simple," Craig said to Radio Times. "There should simply be better parts for women and actors of colour. Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?"

What are others saying?

Craig, as the Independent noted, isn't the only person from the Bond Universe to hold the belief that the legendary spy should be played by a man:

• Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, whose company Eon Prods., has the right to finance and distribute the Bond movies, told Variety that Bond will always be a man. "He can be of any color, but he is male," she 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."
• Halle Berry, who played Jinx Johnson, an American spy, in "Die Another Day," said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, "I want [women] to be tough but I don't know if Bond should be a woman. I mean, that series is steeped in history, you know Ian Fleming's stories. I don't think you can change Bond to a woman. We can create a new Bond character that's a woman, and give her a new name, based on that theory, but I don't know if Bond should be a woman."

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