U.K. Secret Service boss: Real 'Q' from 'James Bond' films is a woman

LONDON — A change of casting could be in order in the James Bond movie franchise after the chief of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service revealed the real-life “Q” is a woman.

Alex Younger, the head of the agency commonly known as MI6, which employs Bond in the films, made the revelation while giving a speech encouraging women to join the organization,which supplies the British government with foreign intelligence.

Q, the tech guru behind Bond’s deadly gadgets, has never been acted by a woman. The role was most recently played by Ben Whishaw alongside Daniel Craig's Bond in Skyfall and Spectre. Whishaw’s predecessors include the late Desmond Llewelyn, who played the character between 1963 and 1999, and John Cleese.

"The real-life Q is looking forward to meeting you and I'm pleased to report that the real-life Q is a woman,” Younger told attendees of the Women in IT awards in London on Wednesday, according to the BBC.

“We've got to get over and see through the Bond thing,” he added.

He said the movies lead to a stereotype that the type of people who join MI6 are usually “really posh” or went to the elite Oxford University.

"The more different people you have in the room, in these high-pressure circumstances in which we operate, the better the decisions,” Younger said.

"So, success for me is a deeper, broader range of technological skills in MI6 and more diversity, in particular more women."

Younger, who became the head of MI6 in 2014, has served as an MI6 officer in countries including Afghanistan, where he led its operations against al-Qaeda.