According to Skyfall and Spectre director Sam Mendes, the next James Bond movie should be directed by a woman. After first hitting the big screen in the 1960s, the Bond franchise now consists of 25 films in total. After Pierce Brosnan starred as the suave superspy for four films during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Daniel Craig took over in 2006 with Casino Royale. The actor would appear as Bond for five films, bidding farewell to the role in last year's No Time To Die, which saw the character die for the first time in franchise history.
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With the Craig era of Bond now definitively at an end, many fans are curious about where the franchise will go next. Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have already said that the next iteration of the character will be a total reinvention, and it remains to be seen which actor will don the tuxedo next. Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston, and Idris Elba have been fan-cast as Bond for years, but it's unclear if that will translate into any of them getting the part. While the next actor to play Bond is often top of mind for fans, it's also unknown who will direct the film after Cary Joji Fukunaga directed No Time To Die.
In a new interview with Deadline, Mendes supports a female director for the next Bond installment. The Skyfall director explains that since Bond himself is evolving, both as a character and in terms of the actors being considered to play him, so too should the director. Check out Mendes' full comment below:
"I don’t envy Barbara having to follow Daniel’s [Craig] five movies. He reinvigorated the franchise but the franchise is so huge that it’s very difficult for a younger actor to step into that. Let me rephrase that. I think that the actor playing Bond is going to evolve, the director has to evolve. I think it would be wonderful to see a woman directing Bond. I think it would be wonderful.”
Although the Bond franchise has now been going strong for almost 60 years, the films have only ever been directed by men. No Time To Die shook up the Bond formula in several ways, featuring the first non-British director with Fukunaga and the first Black female to take on the role of 007 with Lashana Lynch's Nomi. With some previous incarnations of Bond now widely seen as sexist and misogynistic, and with Craig's more recent films attempting to curtail some of those criticisms, a female director may be able to offer a new perspective on the character that would be in line with Broccoli's hopes to reinvent the franchise.
It remains to be seen how the Bond franchise will evolve after Craig's exit in No Time To Die, but bringing on a female director certainly seems like a possibility. While the Bond franchise has featured female writers in the past, including even back in the 1960s, it does feel long overdue for a woman to sit in the director's chair for the first time. Skyfall is widely considered one of the best modern Bond movies, suggesting that his views on how the franchise should evolve are certainly worth taking into consideration.