Mankiewicz had thought of turning Solitaire into a Black woman, and Diana Ross was his first choice. Broccoli and Saltzman decided to stick to Fleming's description of a white woman and, after considering Catherine Deneuve, cast Jane Seymour, who was in the TV series "The Onedin Line". Yaphet Kotto was cast while doing another movie for United Artists, "Across 110th Street". Kotto reported one of the things he liked in the role was Kananga's interest in the occult, "feeling like he can control past, present and future".