It might be a tactical red herring, but this would serve to suggest that the same criteria is being used in the search for Bond 7.
Could the next Bond be directed by… Phoebe Waller-Bridge?
The director's chair over on the Pinewood lot remains empty for Bond 26, with the hotly-anticipated next 007 instalment still yet to get a new Bond and even a script, according to Broccoli at the BAFTAs in February. That would suggest that we're quite a few years from the next one, but speculation abounds regardless, and not just on the guy in front of the camera. Rumours are starting to churn as to who will take the creative reins on this one, and some of the touted names are a little surprising, to say the least.
The most recent rumour comes by way of a report in the Daily Mail, which suggests Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the number one directorial candidate in Broccoli's mind. Take that with a massive pinch of salt as the story is yet to be corroborated by any reputable outlet, but still, it opens up a curious question. What exactly would a Waller-Bridge Bond movie, the first directed by a woman, look like? It wouldn't be her first interaction with the franchise, of course: the Fleabag creator was picked up by the Bond producers for script rewrites on No Time to Die, softening the superspy and challenging his character's typical sexism to boot.
We'll wait to see it reported elsewhere before we speculate further, but it would certainly open up new avenues for the increasingly dated franchise — and hey, the producers have been making a big song-and-dance about this “re-invention” they're keen on…
The official search for Bond hasn't begun yet
According to Variety, the Bond producers haven't started the “official search” for the sixth Bond yet, following Daniel Craig's explosive departure from the series in No Time to Die. As the outlet notes, a bunch of names have been thrown around in the press — from Idris Elba to Bridgerton man Regé-Jean Page (now starring in his own action blockbuster, The Gray Man) — but Broccoli explicitly said that no real scouting has been completed.
She had previously said that such a search wouldn't even begin until late 2022 so, in all likelihood, we'll have no real 007 news until next year. The news could even be withheld further — Daniel Craig wasn't unveiled as Bond until October 2005, a year before Casino Royale, his first mission as the titular super spy.
“It's a big decision,” Broccoli was previously quoted as having said at the opening night of Macbeth of Broadway, in which Craig starred. “It's not just casting a role. It's about a whole rethink about where we're going.” Whatever the case, what a responsibility to have.
Bond… probably won't be a woman
The jury's still out on how much the Bond producers are going to deviate from the norm with their next Bond pick, but we know it probably won't be a woman. Back in January 2020, Broccoli explicitly told Variety that while Bond “can be of any colour," he will remain male. “I believe we should be creating new characters for women — strong female characters,” she continued. “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."
For his own part, Craig agrees. “There should simply be better parts for women and actors of colour,” Bond told RadioTimes in September (h/t IGN). “Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?”
Ana de Armas, who co-starred in No Time to Die as CIA ass-kicker Paloma, said much the same in an interview with The Sun. “There's no need for a female Bond. There shouldn't be any need to steal someone else's character, you know, to take it over,” she said. Referring to the franchise's origins in the books written by Ian Fleming she added: “This is a novel, and it leads into this James Bond world and this fantasy of that universe where he's at."
Has filming begun on Bond 26?
Nope, and it'll be a good while yet, according to Barbara Broccoli. “I’d say that filming is at least two years away,” she told Deadline at an event honouring the producer and her brother Michael G. Wilson. Like we say, it's gonna be ages.
