As we near the debut of No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s last outing as the iconic 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:James Bond (for serious, this time), thoug𝔍hts turn to who could replace him. The thing is, Craig has been talking about leaving for quite a while. That means a lot of options have been floated over the last few years, and people refuse to move on from them. That’s why I think Daniel Kaluuya is being overlooked.

Before we get to Kaluuya, there are a few candidates to dismiss. Daniel Craig, the current Bond, is 🦩53. Idris Elba, a heavy favourite for the role, is 49. Michael Fassbender is 44. So is Tom Hardy. Yes, really. That’s what 44 looks like in Hollywood. I hate it too.

Related: Russell T Davies Is The Only🀅 One Who Can Avert Another Doctor Who Cancellati🍎onTom Hiddleston, being touted by some as a younger choice, is 40. Again, yes really. We can’t be doing this every time. Daniel Kaluuya, on the other hand, is 32. It has been a staple of Craig’s Bond that he’s too old for this shit, Danny Glover-style. Elba, Fassbender, Hardy, and Hiddleston fail to offer any real contras🔴t to this. Kaluuya does.

Of course, it’s not just that he’s younger. Give the role to Finn Wolfhard if that’sꦆ the qualification, right? Maybe Marcus🎐 Rashford. But age is an important factor.

So is gender. I know Lashana Lynch is ‘007’ in No Time To Die, but I think Bond should be a man. Actually, it’s not really ‘should be’, is it? It’s not really an opinion - he is a man. He just… is. There are hundreds of Bond stories, if you count the films, novels, video games, and comics. He’s a man in them, because the character is a man. I don’t mind some characters being gender flipped - Lady Ghostbusters was a retelling rather than a physical change of the characters, and with The Doctor canꦅonically transforming, a female Thirt💫eenth made sense. Bond isn’t like that.

It would feel like point scoring. We should have more female-led action movies - Atomic Blonde, Sicario, the non-Scarlett Johansson Ghost in the Shell, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:with-Scarlett Johansson Black Widow, and Kill Bill prove the idea works. They aren&rsqu🦩o;t exceptions to the rule either. Here, have another list - Wonder Woman, The Hunger Games, The Old Guard, The Termina🍒tor, Miss Bala, and several Star Wars adventures also prove the idea works.

We can make fantastic female-led action movies. We should make more. We should also have stronger female characters in Bond - hopefully Lynch is that, and hopefully latest Bond girl Ana De Armas, teaming up with Craig again after Knives Out, doesn’t end up naked and dead. But making James Bond a woman seems like changing the character at his core to appeal to fictional demographics. No Time To Die director C🐠ary Fukunaga has already spoken of the need to modernise Bond beyond his “rapist” past, bringing Fleabag writer Phoebe Wal♔ler-Bridge aboard for precisely that reason. The idea that Bond is a lost cause as a man and needs to become a woman in order to be a worthwhile human being is laughably toxic.

The older Bonds have been incredibly misogynistic. Even Craig’s Bond has issues, hopping in the shower for a quickie after his companion finished pouring hꦏer heart out about her traumatic past being trafficked. But these issues can be fixed by - now hear me out - not writing the charac🐓ter as a massive dick, rather than taking his dick away completely.

It’s not just that ‘Bond has always been a man’. He’s always been white too, but I have no issues pushing Kaluuya forward, nor would I hold being Black against current favourite Idris Elba. It’s that making him a woman feels like an admission that any current issues with the character cannot be fixed. Bond’s masculinity has always been part of his character. His whiteness? Asi♚de from the fact he’d be treated differently by others in certain situations had he been Black, being white isn’t part🦩icularly definitive.

These are all just big concepts though. All I’ve argued so far is that the next Bond should be significan꧒tly younger than Daniel Craig, that they should be a man, 📖and that being Black shouldn’t come into it. We’re left with Marcus Rashford again, aren’t we?

Let’s get down to Kaluuya then. Probably best known for his lead role in Get Out, he also won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah. He's won praise for his turns in both Black Panther and Black Mirror, as well as Queen & Slim, but I'm burying the lede a little here. Kaluuya also brings experience from his time as Agent Tucker in Johnny English Reborn, and is therefore the perfect James Bond.

Kaluuya is an incredibly driven actor, capable of very intense energy. Black Mirror and Judas and the Black Messiah display that side of him. Yet he's also very affable, charming, and wry, something we again see in Black Mirror before the full dystopia of the world is revealed to him. In interviews, this side of him comes through as well, just as it does in the pre-racist-nightmare parts of Get Out.

James Bond is a British icon, but too often he has been played by upper class British men with no connection to what it actually means to be British. Kaluuya, a council estate kid born to immigrant parents, represents a very different, much more modern side of what it means to be British. Idris Elba has this too, of course, and if he is to be Bond's replacement, you'll hear no complaints from me. I'd like a younger interpretation, but I can't say Elba is a bad choice. Tom Hardy comes from humble beginnings too, but knowing Hardy he would probably play the role in his posh/fake posh affectation. Hiddleston, obviously, is a classic choice, and while the Irish-German Fassbender is not the traditional pick, his mastery of accents would likely see him play it traditional. Kaluuya is the best chance at giving us a James Bond that is different enough to be new while still being similar enough to feel familiar. He's the perfect choice, even if no one else seems to be suggesting him.

Next: People Are Finally Realising Sinnerman Is Cyberpunk 2077's Best Quest