Lashana Lynch responds to backlash after being cast as first Black female James Bond
British actress Lashana Lynch will take over the role of James Bond from Daniel Craig.
A year ago, rumours swirled that the Captain Marvel star would step in as the next 007, but the new wasn't confirmed until this week.
The news was set to be revealed in No Time To Die –– which was slated for an April 220 release but delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Daily Mail, "There is a pivotal scene at the start of the film where M says 'Come in 007', and in walks Lashana who is Black, beautiful and a woman."
Lashana Lynch attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
The source added that the big reveal is "a popcorn-dropping moment. Bond is still Bond but he's been replaced as 007 by this stunning woman".
In an interview with Harper's Bazaar that hit newsstands this week, Lynch spoke about how she dealt with people who objected to 007 being a woman of colour, saying she had to remember not to take it personally.
"I am one Black woman — if it were another Black woman cast in the role, it would have been the same conversation, she would have got the same attacks, the same abuse," she said. "I just have to remind myself that the conversation is happening and that I'm a part of something that will be very, very revolutionary."
She added that she coped by spending a week completely offline, meditating and seeing no one but family.
Lynch, who is of Jamaican descent, says she feels "grateful" that she gets to "challenge those narratives" that 007 has to be a white man.
"We're moving away from toxic masculinity, and that's happening because women are being open, demanding and vocal, and calling out misbehaviour as soon as we see it," she said.
No Time To Die, Lynch's debut as 007, is set for release in April 2021.
