Actor Helen Mirren, who will soon appear alongside her former co-star and 007 hero Pierce Brosnan in Thursday Murder Club, has confessed that she has never liked James Bond and how women were portrayed in the film.

Mirren, a staunch feminist, recently said that Bond "has to be a guy". "You can’t have a woman,” she told in an interview with Saga Magazine. "James Bond has to be James Bond, otherwise it becomes something else." Her thoughts have come at a time when there are growing rumours the spy may change gender after Amazon MGM Studios took ownership of the franchise.

The actor said she is against the idea of a female star taking up the role, but would rather see stories of women who have been in spy roles. "The whole concept of James Bond is drenched and born out of profound sexism. Women have always been a major and incredibly important part of the Secret Service, they always have been. And very brave. If you hear about what women did in the French Resistance, they’re amazingly, unbelievably courageous. So I would tell real stories about extraordinary women who’ve worked in that world," she explained.

Brosnan, who played Bond in four films - GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, and Die Another Day, too agreed with Mirren's thoughts and said, "I’m so excited to see the next man come on the stage and to see a whole new exuberance and life for this character. I adore the world of James Bond. It's been very good to me. It's the gift that keeps giving. And I'm just a member of the audience now, sitting back, saying: ‘Show us what you're going to do'," he said.

Mirren denied playing the role in a new film, stating that she is "too old" and it would have been great if she had taken it up when she was young. "But that time was different; we could never even have imagined a woman playing that role," she said.

The debate is still raging over who will next play 007 after Daniel Craig stepped down from the role following his final outing in No Time To Die in 2021. Speculation over who will become the next Bond has included Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a frontrunner for the role. Idris Elba, Theo James, and James Norton have also been named as possible candidates.

With Amazon MGM Studios backing, the 26th film in the James Bond series will be written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.

In the upcoming Thursday Murder Club film, Mirren plays a retired spy who’s the founder and leader of a group of crime-solving retirees played by her, Brosnan, Celia Imrie and Sir Ben Kingsley.