While Daniel Craig’s swan song as James Bond is still almost a year away from release, the actor has shared a few thoughts on who the next 007 might be, saying that he’s open to candidates of any gender or race.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the actor reaffirmed that the upcoming Bond 25 will be his final outing as the famed spy, remarking that it’s time for someone else to inherit the title:
“I think I’ve done enough, people are going to get sick of the sight of me. Someone else should have a go.”
Craig went on to address the speculation that the next Bond could be a woman or an African American actor, saying that whoever they go with should be “the right person for the job.”
“I think that’s what it should be,” Craig said. “I think that everybody should be considered. For women and for African Americans, there should be great parts anyway, across the board. It shouldn’t have to be Bond that takes … it doesn’t need to be Bond. It just needs to be written — some good parts.”
One popular counterargument to the case for making the next James Bond black or female is that Hollywood should instead focus on creating interesting and original roles for members of these groups, rather than inserting them into pre-existing properties where they’re propped up by the popularity of their white, male predecessors.
Indeed, even Craig’s wife Rachel Weisz made this argument in an interview last year with The Telegraph when she remarked, “Why not create your own story rather than jumping on to the shoulders and being compared to all those other male predecessors?” Similarly, James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli told The Guardian back in October that “we don’t have to turn male characters into women,” contending that we should instead “create more female characters and make the story fit those female characters.”
Regardless, it could still be a long wait before we find out who the next 007 is, but first, Craig will be finishing his run in the series with the release of Bond 25 on April 8th, 2020.