10 Women Who Should Be The Next James Bond

10. Gillian Anderson

Let's start with the same place everyone else will be, with the genesis of the whole idea.

In the immediate aftermath of the most recent Craig rumours, the former Agent Scully (or current, I'm not quite sure what's happening with that) tweeted a fan-made poster of herself as James Bond. It looked... well, it looked pretty good. Between the piercing blue eyes and the subtle-but-needless pout it might as well just be Daniel Craig in a dress. Ergo; Gillian Anderson should be the next Bond.

Putting aside for a moment this is little more than a neatly cropped fan mock-up, no image taken in the last decade has screamed "license to kill" more than that above. It's dangerous, it's calculated, it's threatening, and it's steely. A Bond should ooze steel; and from literally the metal of the gun barrel to the unflinching penetrative stare of Anderson herself, this is steely. An upper lip of unbendable British steel.

Imagine being in a small room with this standing between you and the door, sweating profusely as you try to verbalise your argument for why she can't be the next Bond. "I just... well... he's just always been a man hasn't he?" you stammer, realising these will be your last words before Gillian Anderson crushes your larynx with Krav Maga.

Let's get down to it though; Gillian Anderson would be an amazing Bond. She's absolutely ice cold and, for a while in the 90s, pretty much wrote the book on women - nay, humans - straddling the line between "This is my job" and "I will end you" while holing a gun. Her recent resurgence as a screen presence leaves her perfectly poised for a massive role, and she already carries the name-recognition required for the part.