Out British actor Ian McKellen has suggested that James Bond be gay.

McKellen, 78, is best known for playing Gandalf in the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies and Magneto in the X-Men films. He came out in 1988.

In an interview with Variety that touched on greater Hollywood LGBT representation, McKellen said that 007 would make a perfect superhero.

“I wouldn’t say the films coming out of the mainstream are quite as related to what’s going on in the real world as I would like them to be,” McKellen said. “One indication of that is LGBT people don’t really get quite a big enough say. If you’re one of those initials yourself, you do notice that actually these movies are not about me at all.”

“I do have an idea,” he continued. “James Bond is a wimp! He’s a silly Englishman that wants his martinis stirred," he remarked. “He changes his underwear, like Superman, and he can save the world. [All the actors] play it the same – he’s heroic all the way through. No, he’s not.”

“If you play James Bond as an outwardly camp, silly gay man that no one took seriously and then he turned out as many gay men are underneath their clothes – buff and strong and as hetero as any hetero – we might have a more truthful story than the one that has been told,” McKellen concluded.