# Next James Bond should be British, says former 007 Pierce Brosnan

**Sun 9 Mar 2025 16.10 EDT**  
First published on Sun 9 Mar 2025 12.57 EDT

The next James Bond should be British,  has said, as a leaked memo reportedly confirmed the character will remain a man.

The Irish actor, who played Bond from 1995 to 2002, said it was a “given” that the spy should be British, after rumours an American could be tipped for the role.

The film series was sold to the streaming giant for £770m, with a deal being struck in February for Bond’s custodians Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson to take a step back, after reported tensions over the spy saga’s future.



Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles last November.

Photograph: Valérie Macon/AFP/Getty Images

The pair, who oversaw the franchise for decades as the children of its original producer, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, will continue as co-owners but will have no creative control, following fierce rows over 007’s future.

These included Barbara Broccoli branding Amazon executives “fucking idiots”, according to the Wall Street Journal, over ideas to expand the franchise with spin-offs and a TV series.

After  was agreed, Wilson said he and Broccoli had been “very reluctant to delegate” the intellectual property to a television series, with Broccoli adding: “It’s not something we’ve ever wanted to do.”

It may be a sign that there is set to be movement on a new Bond film, four years on from Daniel Craig’s final appearance.

While there is no script, director or lead actor in place, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James and James Norton are all favourites for the role.

 had said the actor “has to be British or from the Commonwealth – and he has to be male”.

The news of  received mixed reactions from fans online, with some fearing that the US brand would choose a non-white actor to play the secret agent or write him as gay in a future film.

Despite Bond being arguably the campest spy franchise – an attribute triumphantly parodied in the Austin Powers movies – Brosnan previously said Broccoli would , though he welcomed the idea.

Others, meanwhile, were optimistic about the potential for progress, hoping Amazon would sanitise the famously misogynist character  by Esquire magazine, in an effort to appeal to younger audiences who might be more likely to label the character “cringe” rather than “cool”.

There have only been five Bond films in the last 23 years, and the series has faced competition from more modern, fast-paced action characters such as John Wick and Jason Bourne.

Brosnan said: “History has been passed on and I’m very proud to have been part of the history and the legacy of Bond and the movies that I made with Barbara and Michael.

“That we moved the needle, that we brought it back to life. It had been dormant  six years and GoldenEye was such a success that it continued and went from strength to strength … You know, everything changes, everything falls apart, and I wish them well.”
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