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The hunt for the next James Bond hasn't even started yet

The next Bond can be any colour but won't be a woman, reveals 007 producers.

The hunt for the next James Bond hasn't even started yet
Marc Chacksfield
16 January 2020

No Time To Die, Daniel Craig's last outing as James Bond, isn't out until April but there has been months of speculation as to who will replace him in the role.

There have been seemingly daily stories about who is the bookmakers' favourite to take over the Bond role but the producers of the 007 franchise have revealed that they haven't even started looking yet and it could take years to find the most suitable candidate.

They also confirmed that the franchise won't be going down the route of Doctor Who as they aren't interested in the role swapping genders, rather empower the female characters in the franchise more than going down that route.

“He can be of any color, but he is male,” says Barbara Broccoli in this fascinating Variety interview. “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.”

Given the franchise has been troublesome when it comes to how women are portrayed, we should see a lot more of that in Not Time To Die as Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been brought in to give the script something of a makeover. And it was confirmed this week that the brilliant Billie Eilish will be singing the theme song.

Not Time To Die is in cinemas 3 April and is one of our must-watch movies of 2020. Here's (00)7 things we learned about the movie from the trailer.

What is the best James Bond movie? Have your say. Don't forget to pick your best James Bond villains too.