Next James Bond: New female star enters running to replace Craig amid expert's calls for diverse Bond

GB News exclusively broke the news of female stars Comer and Nyong'o's surge in the Bond market earlier this month.

Betting expert and spokesperson for www.safebettingsites.com, Neil Roarty, told GB News at the time: "Of note in the latest Next James Bond betting is the recent entry of a selection of female stars to the market with Jodie Comer and Lupita Nyong'o now in the running alongside No Time To Die’s Lashana Lynch (33/1).

"Comer joins the betting at 40/1 and Nyong'o enters at 50/1. While both actresses remain longshots, the fact that they’ve joined Lynch in the conversation means the public is not ruling out a female actor becoming the new 007."

And the public's sway towards a female Bond has resulted in a new star joining the running in the form of Karen Gillan.

While the likes of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Cillian Murphy, James Norton, and Damson Idris remain in the conversation as likely candidates to take over from Craig, Gillan has become the latest newcomer to enter bookies' thinking.

Head of News for BettingSites.co.uk, Lee Astley, explained all to GB News as he revealed: "Rumours of Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan taking the helm of Bond 26 has sparked a shift in the market for who will play the next James Bond.

"Men who have played prominent roles in Nolan films (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Robert Pattinson, John David Washington) have all had odds slashed to play the licence to kill lothario.

"Lashana Lynch's part in No Time To Die has opened the possibility of a first female bond, with Jodie Comer, Lupita Nyongo and Karen Gillan joining Lynch in the running for the role.

"Damson Idris and James Norton have drifted significantly as punters are cooling off on their chances that the two actors will be the next secret agent."

Similar to Comer, Lynch and Nyong'o, however, Gillan's chances of taking over from Craig remain rather slim.

According to the new odds and data, Comer, Lynch and Nyong'o are now all priced as 40/1 outsiders while Gillan is an even bigger underdog at 50/1.

Gillan is no stranger to taking on high-profile roles on the big screen as the Scottish actor has starred as Nebula across the Marvel franchise in films including Avengers: Endgame, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Thor: Love and Thunder.

However, if she were to defy the odds and land the part of Bond, it would not only be a shock to bookies but to 007 fans everywhere given film boss Barbara Broccoli's previous comments regarding the prospect of a female agent.

She told Variety back in 2020 ahead of the release of No Time to Die: "He [Bond] can be of any colour, but he is male.

"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."

Perhaps the shift in the market was to be expected, however, after an MI6 expert claimed a "black" or "female" or "black female" Bond would help drive diversity within the UK's intelligence services.

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Former Foreign Office worker John Taylor told The Telegraph: "The only thing chiefs, I think, would want to change, going back to an earlier conversation, and it may happen yet, is that James Bond should be a black man, or a woman, or a black woman, and you know (it) would make those sort of people also, for diversity, want to join.

“James Bond has been nothing but good," he added to the publication, also stating that MI6 applicants are "envious" of Bond's lifestyle.

The calls for Bond to be played by an actor who isn't white or male sparked controversy by some critics who claimed that doing so would be conforming to "wokery".

Former UKIP leader Henry Bolton was one person vocal in his condemnation of the idea, unleashing a furious rant on GB News earlier this month in which he said: "Why mess with it?

"Maybe Bond is outdated, I’m not arguing it isn’t. Why then take that story and change it? Why not create a modern story? If you think it’s outdated, I don’t argue."