The next James Bond will not be a woman, says producer

LONDON: The next James Bond will not be a woman, the movie’s producer said in an interview, as speculation mounts about who could replace Daniel Craig as the legendary 007.

Craig, 51, is due to step down after the latest Bond film, “No Time to Die”, which will be released in April this year.

Rumours abound over who could replace him and whether the next Bond will be female but Barbara Broccoli told Variety it would definitely be a man.

“He can be of any colour, but he is male,” said Broccoli, the producer of the film alongside Michael G. Wilson.

The Bond franchise is one of the movie world’s most lucrative, with 2015’s “Spectre” taking in $880 million at the box office worldwide, while “Skyfall” in 2012 grossed more than $1 billion globally.

Broccoli, while dismissing the idea that a female should play the character of a male, said: “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.”