Daniel Craig not in favour of a woman playing James Bond

British actor Daniel Craig has caused an upheaval on social media after claiming that James Bond shouldn’t be played by a woman.

During an interview with Radio Times, the former on-screen James Bond said there were better parts for women to play than that of the iconic suited and booted secret agent.

“Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?” said the 53-year-old star.

His remarks come shortly before the release of his subsequent Bond film, No Time to Die, which will hit theaters on October 8.

Earlier, the franchise producer Barbara Broccoli made similar remarks about the character, while chatting with Variety.

“James Bond can be of any color, but he is male,” she had 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,” she said.

This comes amidst rumours that that Lashana Lynch could inherit the 007 title from Bond in the film.

Lynch had told The Guardian: “With Bond, it could be a man or woman. They could be white, black, Asian, mixed race. They could be young or old. At the end of the day, even if a two-year-old was playing Bond, everyone would flock to the cinema to see what this two-year-old’s gonna do, no?”

“We are in a place in time where the industry is not just giving audiences what it thinks the audience wants. They’re actually giving the audience what they want to give the audience,” she said.