Female James Bond on the horizon.

Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett wrote Ellen Ripley as a man in the first place. She was only changed to a woman because Weaver's audition was spot on. In fact all the characters were written as men, but the auditions were open to women too and if they fit the bill, it was game on. There's also nothing really female about Ellen Ripley in 'Alien' either. In fact, if you take away the cat, she loses nearly all of her femininity and in the very first draft Jones didn't exist.

I think Veronica Cartwright, who also auditioned for the role of Ripley, said that she played her character (Lambert) as more womanly to offset Weaver's more neutral take. She initially disliked the character as he/she was written as a bit cowardly. But she threw herself into it anyway and gives a good performance that always gets overshadowed by Weaver. I think she also suggested that there might be a bit of queen beeism going on between the ships only two females and this can be seen in the extended edition of 'Alien' where the characters are more bitchy to each other than in the theatrical cut.

However, yes, Ripley ended up being established in the audiences mind as a woman but the character didn't start out that way and, also yes, a remake of 'Alien' (ugh, the very idea) where Ripley was now a bloke would be just as face palm inducing as sex changing James Bond into a woman.

The thing is, the objection is not to a female spy. There have been plenty of those throughout the years. The objection is to the cheap piggybacking on something that already exists.

I doubt the Broccoli family will allow any major changes to the Bond formula, and making him have a sex change would be fairly major. If they didn't own the brand and have the influence they do, I'd imagine practically anything could happen, such is the level of culture war lunacy that's coming out of America these days.

Since the Bond franchise isn't much more than a glorified product placement vehicle, the studio will be desperate to pander to current Hollywood political agendas though, so we'll see all sort of fiddling around the edges and watering down of the character.

Your right. I have clearly just made up an entire scene where they give him the name in my head

You can do a non white Bond easily enough without ruining the character. There's plenty of young English talent that can do it and embody what Bond is. Elba is probably too old now although he'd have made a good Bond but someone like Daniel Kaluuya or Henry Golding would work.

A female Bond doesn't. It'd be best to do a female agent in the same universe if they wanted to do that (006 being a female or something) and just create a new character.

He's too old.

what age is Homer Simpson now...

When I was seventeen,
I drank some very good beer,
I drank some very good beer
I purchased with a fake ID.
My name was Brian McGee,
I stayed up listenin' to Queen
When I was seventeen.

old straight white guys are so persecuted these days you have to feel for them

You are making a massive and incorrect assumption as to who watches Bond these days.

Yeah man, not as if Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnon both won sexiest man alive awards over the years, Daniel Craig is hardly a boring looking man. But sure yeah, them being white makes them look ordinary and average.

They definitely hired all those actors over the years because they looked plain and ordinary.