Jenna Ortega just made some comments tied into James Bond that felt pretty timely. We’ve been wondering who the new Bond could be even before Daniel Craig said goodbye to the character in the latest of the Bond movies, No Time To Die. But the Wednesday actress was recently asked if she’d want to reprise Johnny Depp’s famous Edward Scissorhands character as a female actress, and her 007-related answer honestly mirrors exactly how I feel.
The closest audiences have come to the Burton sequel is when Timothée Chalamet played Edward Scissorhands' son for a Super Bowl Ad. Regardless, when asked about potentially gender-flipping Edward Scissorhands, the 21-year-old actress got candid about how she wants to see females represented in the movies moving forward. She doesn’t really seem to have an interest in gender-flipping major characters – no “Edith Scissorhands” – and she believes there’s a better path for leading ladies, telling MTV:
No, you know what I would say about that specifically as well? I love that there’s a lot more female leads nowadays, I think that’s so special. But we should have our own. I don’t like it when it’s like a spinoff -- I don’t want to see like ‘Jamie Bond’ -- You know? I want to see another badass.
While she is, in fact, in a sequel with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and a remake of sorts with Wednesday, the ultimate point she is trying to make really stands. She wants her own projects starring leading ladies, not just be rehashes of what’s come before.
This is oh so timely given the narrative surrounding the 007 casting in recent months. The question of whether James Bond should be a woman at some point gets bandied about a fair amount, and often leads to backlash in various corners of the Internet. Even Barbara Broccoli has had to speak out on the matter and note James Bond is intended to be a man.
I don’t think it’s cool when people dump on the idea a woman could manifest James Bond, and we've honestly seen Doctor Who change the gender of the Doctor. (Though people were mad when that happened too.) Still, I do actually agree with Jenna when she talks about wanting more projects created around women that could be their own badass franchises. Her comments mirror what other women connected to the franchise like Ana De Armas have shared about the possibility of a female 007.
Female actions leads do happen sometimes with stuff like Hunger Games, but all too often when we do get a big movie with a badass female (I’m looking at you Atomic Blonde), it so often gets squandered before it gets the chance to be something long-term. I’d love to see a few more female-centric action franchises out there that gets as many movies as John Wick, I'm not even asking for as many at this point as James Bond has gotten. Fingers crossed for the spinoff Ballerina when it hits theaters next year.
Now to be clear, Ortega’s not anti-sequel, as she feels there are some many directions and opportunities a character like Beetlejuice could go in. She just doesn't think the gender-flipping bent is all that.
So yeah, definitely leave it. And also the beauty of something like Edward is the mystery. I think it’s very sensitive. Beetlejuice can still be somewhat original because he exists in no specific time. You could take him back to the 1800s if you really wanted to. You could really make an anthology movie series with him. Go to the future.
Having said this, where is Atomic Blonde 2 at in development? Honestly…
