Jenna Ortega addressed the topic of a female James Bond during a recent interview with MTV about Tim Burton’s upcoming ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.’
“I love that there’s a lot more female leads nowadays,” the actress shared. “I think that’s so special, but we should have our own. I don’t like it when it’s like a spinoff — I don’t want to see like ‘Jamie Bond.’ You know? I want to see another badass.”
The talks of a female Bond started back in the 1950s. The first owner of the James Bond rights, Gregory Ratoff, considered casting Susan Hayward for the role back then but changed his mind for Sean Connery.
The franchise made a move towards the idea by casting Lashana Lynch as 007 in ‘No Time to Die.’ While Lynch appeared as a new character who only used the same mantle, actresses like Sophia Di Martino and Famke Janssen later showed interest in playing female Bond.
But Barbara Broccoli made it clear that the British spy would remain male. “James Bond can be of any color, but he is male,” the producer told Variety in 2020.
“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.”
Currently, EON Productions is not planning a new James Bond film but is searching for an actor to replace Daniel Craig. Aaron Taylor Johnson is reportedly one of the actors eyed for the role.
