Barbie Director Thinks Kingsley Ben-Adir Should Be Next James Bond
Gerwig praised the Ken actor for how he handled one of the film's final scenes.
Barbie easily became one of the biggest movies of this year, grossing over $1 billion at the global box office and sparking countless trends. The film sported an ensemble cast portraying a number of Barbies and Kens, and it sounds like Barbie director and co-writer Greta Gerwig had a unique reaction to one cast member's performance. In a recent interview on Variety's Awards Circuit Podcast, Gerwig praised Kingsley Ben-Adir's work in one of the film's final scenes, in which he turns to address the crowd at Barbieland. According to Gerwig, her direction to Ben-Adir was to "ascend the throne," and she feels that his performance was a perfect audition for him to potentially play James Bond.
"Everybody's jaws dropped," Gerwig explained. "I was like, get this footage to whoever is making James Bond immediately."
Will There Be a Barbie Sequel?
According to a recent report from The Hollywood Reporter, there are currently no options or deals in place for Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling to return for a Barbie sequel. Robbie, in particular, is reportedly not obligated to return to her role of Stereotypical Barbie, but could return as a producer on a Barbie sequel if she wanted to.
As the report outlines, Warner Bros. Pictures "made overtures" about Gerwig possibly returning to direct a Barbie sequel, but her team delayed those talks until the first film's debut. With negotiations around new projects on hold until the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are over, there's a chance that Gerwig, Robbie, and Gosling could return for a new Barbie movie — but they would probably have to negotiate much more lucrative contracts, in response to the film's box office performance. Gerwig has indicated that she currently does not have any ideas for a sequel film.
"At this moment, it's all I've got," Gerwig revealed. "I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I'll never have another idea and everything I've ever wanted to do, I did. I wouldn't want to squash anybody else's dream but for me, at this moment, I'm at totally zero."
Who Will Be the Next James Bond?
At the moment, an actor for the upcoming reboot of James Bond has yet to be cast. According to franchise producer Barbara Broccoli, the task of finding a successor to Daniel Craig's Bond is not easy.
"I go back to GoldenEye when everyone was saying 'the cold war is over, the wall is over, Bond is dead, no need for Bond, the whole world's at peace and now there's no villains' – and boy was that wrong!" Broccoli explained earlier this year. "Daniel gave us the ability to mine the emotional life of the character … and also the world was ready for it. I think these movies reflect the time they are in, and there's a big, big road ahead reinventing it for the next chapter and we haven't even begun with that."
Would you want to see Kingsley Ben-Adir be the next James Bond? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
