I don’t care who the next James Bond is – and you shouldn’t either | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV

Be honest. When was the first time you heard the name Daniel Craig?

I’ll bet that for a large majority of people reading this, it was in 2006, when he stormed onto the world stage as James Bond in Casino Royale. Of course, he’d had acting roles before that – in 2001 he starred as Alex West in Hollywood blockbuster Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and in 1993 he appeared in an episode of Heartbeat as Peter Begg.

But vaguely recognising his face and knowing his name are vastly different things. When Daniel was announced as the new Bond, plenty of people wore the universal expression of scrunched eyebrows which clearly denoted, ‘who?’

I’m willing to bet, on the contrary, that bosses are bound to pick someone a heck of a lot more obscure – a name that will have people reacting in a similar way to Daniel Craig.

An unknown name has the chance to be thrust into the spotlight, birthing a new career full of watch adverts, tailored suits and car sponsorships. It’s useless trying to anticipate it because whoever it is will either make a good go of it or not, in the same vein as each successive Doctor Who actor has had to prove themselves.

There’s another reason I don’t care who plays the next Bond – I won’t be watching anyway. After watching a couple of the classic films, I was surprised to find more recent releases like Skyfall and Spectre still relied on the same old sexist tropes as when Sean Connery or Roger Moore was playing the spy.

Bond has an endless cycle of pretty nameless ‘Bond girls’ and doesn’t seem to be slowing down even this late into the 21st century.

The character has even been accused of straight-up sexual assault – though it’s heavily contested – and although Craig’s Bond eventually settled down with a partner and daughter, he was still freely up to flirt with whichever woman came close enough.