Jenna Ortega Is Not Here For A Female James Bond And She’s Right
Few stars are quite as hot as Jenna Ortega right now: she’s a modern scream queen, has her own hit series, and stars in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, one of Hollywood’s most highly-anticipated sequels. She keeps getting offered bigger and bigger roles, and in a recent interview, she was asked if she might ever star in a gender-swapped remake film like Edith Scissorhands. At this point, Jenna Ortega declared that she wants women to headline their own franchises instead of spinoffs of male franchises, noting specifically that she isn’t interested in a female-led James Bond film.
Saying No To “Jamie Bond”
Despite Jenna Ortega immediately dismissing the possibility of a female-led James Bond movie (which she jokingly called “Jamie Bond”), she is very interested in women taking more prominent positions in Hollywood. “I love that there’s a lot more female leads nowadays,” she said. “I think that’s so special.”
Following that disclaimer, she pointed out that women “have our own” film franchises now. She also spoke for countless fans when she said “I don’t like it when it’s like a spinoff.” Really, Jenna Ortega’s point about audiences not necessarily wanting a female James Bond seems very wise when you consider Ghostbusters (2016), a movie that failed to capture the magic (or the box office numbers) of the original films.
Updating James Bond Isn’t Necessarily A Bad Thing
Obviously, there are many women who would take exception to Jenna Ortega’s thoughts here because James Bond is such an iconic figure. That’s one of the reasons different fans have advocated for major changes to that character, such as making the secret agent into a woman or into a Black man. The basic argument is that moving minority cast members into specific roles historically played by white men helps advance the cause of minority groups while adding some much-needed diversity to Hollywood’s cinematic output.
Female-Led Reboots Don’t Always Work
However, Jenna Ortega points out that those advocating for, say, a female James Bond may actually be doing more to harm the cause of feminism than help it. “I want to see another bad*ss,” she said. In her eyes, aiming for female-led remakes and reboots of existing franchises robs us of the chance to get new strong female characters that could headline successful franchises of their very own.
Captain Marvel Proves Ortega’s Point
If you doubt the wisdom of what Jenna Ortega is saying about the James Bond franchise, it’s worth considering the aforementioned Ghostbusters film, a girl-power reboot of a franchise that previously focused on male protagonists. When that movie crashed and burned among both critics and fans, a common defense was that misogynistic moviegoers just weren’t ready for strong female characters.
But a little less than three years later, Captain Marvel–a movie with a climax where a female Superman defeats a manipulative mansplainer–earned over a billion dollars at the box office.
Less Reboots, More Original Characters
In short, Jenna Ortega has already been proven right: audiences didn’t want an all-girl makeover of Ghostbusters any more than they do James Bond, but they will show up for a new franchise featuring a new star. With that being said, we can only hope that Ortega is soon headlining her own franchise of feature films, using her immense talents to bring a vibrant new character to life. Until then, though, we’ll continue enjoying her altogether ooky performance in everything from Beetlejuice 2 to Wednesday.
Source: MTV
