Hollywood star Michael Fassbender has ruled himself out of becoming the next James Bond - suggesting a woman should play a female 007.

The 39-year-old X-Men actor had been tipped as a favourite to land the plum movie role and is rumoured to be on a shortlist of actors in the running to take over from Daniel Craig, 48.

But Fassbender told the December issue of British GQ that the film franchise needed a new spin as Craig had already excelled in 007's tuxedo and that nobody of Craig's age could improve the Spectre star's performance.