James Bond producer rules out female 007

Monitoring Desk

LONDON: The next James Bond will not be a woman, the movies’ 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.

Rumors 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 color, but he is male,” said Broccoli, a producer of the film alongside Michael G. Wilson.

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

Broccoli said she believed in creating strong female characters, but added: “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.”