Dame Judi Dench would welcome a female James Bond.
Dame Judi Dench
The 83-year-old actress - who starred in eight Bond movies - has admitted she cannot see a reason why another female star could not assume the iconic role of 007 one day.
She explained: "If you're good at being a spy you could maybe be a female James Bond. I have no idea why not."
The next Bond movie is being helmed by the American director Cary Joji Fukunaga, after Danny Boyle walked away from the project earlier this year.
Judi and Cary previously worked together on the 2011 romantic drama 'Jane Eyre', and she's backed the director to make a success of 'Bond 25'.
She told Collider: "I did 'Jane Eyre' for Cary and he's absolutely a sweet person. I want to get a message to him to say how glad I am that he's doing it.
"I'm sure he'll give his own take on it and that will be refreshing. I expect he'll do it very, very well. And Ralph Fiennes I expect will play M very well - she said through gritted teeth!"
Asked whether she feels sad to have left the role of M - who is Bond's superior - Judi revealed that she hasn't actually seen the most-recent film in the franchise, 2015's 'Spectre'.
She admitted: "I did eight of them, because I did one morning on 'Spectre'. I haven't seen 'Spectre'. M sent a message over the telly. She was on the television for a minute or something like that. So I can say I did eight."
Tagged in Danny Boyle Dame Judi Dench