The James Bond franchise has always been a family business and has been ruled by executive producer Barbara Broccoli for decades now, taking over from her father Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and fiercely protective of the brand and films.

She signs off on every key Bond decision and that control makes her not only one of the most powerful women in the film business but has ensured the longevity of the franchise – when it comes to this character she knows what she’s talking about.

Speaking with The Guardian this week, she tackled one topic that gets brought up every now and then on social media – the possibility of a female James Bond. Her answer? It isn’t going to happen:

“Bond is male. He’s a male character. He was written as a male and I think he’ll probably stay as a male. And that’s fine. We don’t have to turn male characters into women. Let’s just create more female characters and make the story fit those female characters.”

She also says despite the changes made to Bond over the years, it cannot and probably never will be considered a feminist property as:

“[People] reference those early movies. It was written in the 50s, so there’s certain things in [Bond’s] DNA that are probably not gonna change. But look at the way the world has changed. And I think Bond has come through and transformed with the times. I’ve tried to do my part, and I think particularly with the Daniel [Craig] films, they’ve become much more current in terms of the way women are viewed.”

Indeed her close involvement with the series has been credited as to making the sets of Bond films one of the safest workplaces for women in terms of film sets, and when asked about the possibility of a female director or writer for the series she says: “As a female producer, of course I’d like to do that.”

Cary Fukunaga helms the next Bond film, Daniel Craig’s fifth and likely final outing, which is due for release February 2020.