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Hear Us Out: Why Margot Robbie Should Be the Next James Bond

Historically speaking, if you’re a male actor aged between 30 and 50 with a half-decent IMDB page, your name will invariably crop up in conversations – or potentially headlines– about who the next Bond will be. But what if the next person to get a license to kill was female?

Now that Daniel Craig has sunk his last Vesper Martini, Once Upon a Time Hollywood actor Margot Robbie has my vote for the titular role. No stranger to high-octane movies and strong-willed lead characters – as her portrayal of Suicide Squad mercenary Harley Quinn attests – Robbie was widely-tipped to become the Bond girl in No Time to Die, but why shouldn’t she play the infamous British spy instead of his femme fatale?

She’s got the Hollywood credentials, for one. The 31-year-old has starred in some of the biggest blockbusters to hit the silver screen over the past eight years, starting with Martin Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street back in 2013. Having worked with the likes ofQuentin Tarantino and Richard Curtis, Robbie is on her way to becoming one of the most defining actors of the generation. Along with well-honed combat skills – Robbie reportedly performed many of her own stunts in Birds of Prey – the actor has attitude by the bucketload, as we saw in her portrayal of notorious American figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, and knows how to deliver a chilling one-liner when the moment strikes.

Last month, casting director Debbie McWilliams said the next James Bond should be “somebody who can hold their own, who is attractive, physical, [and] capable of taking on not just the part but all the razzmatazz that goes with it.” Pair the brute force of super villain Quinn with the sultry nature of Naomi Lapaglia – her character in Wolf of Wall Street – and you can practically picture Robbie seducing a henchman’s partner before racing through city streets in a high-speed car chase.

The Australian actor even has the backing of a former Bond: when actor George Lazenby –who played the spy in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – said he would prefer to see a female star play 007 next, he singled out Robbie for the job, telling reporters: “She would be good. She’s ballsy. She comes across like she’s very confident...If you can pull that off, people will believe you.”

To all the naysayers: the Bond franchise has been around for almost 60 years now. To make it to 100 – and beyond – it must continue to experiment and evolve. That doesn’t mean Broccoli et al ought to cast a woman for the sake of it– speaking as a woman, I’d much rather they didn’t – but it also doesn’t mean the idea should be shrugged off without a second thought. Give Robbie the keys to the Aston Martin, stat.

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