For years, rumors have circulated that Idris Elba, 49, may be the next James Bond.
As it turns out, his name has finally been thrown into the mix as a possible replacement for Daniel Craig as the famous spy.
On a recent episode of Deadline’s “Crew Call” podcast, producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson discussed casting Idris Elba.
“Well, we know Idris — I’m friends with him, and he’s a magnificent actor,” Broccoli said.
“You know, it’s been part of the conversation, but it’s always difficult to have the conversation when you have someone in the seat,” she continued. “I think we have decided that until ‘No Time to Die’ has kind of had its run and Daniel has been able to — well, we’ve all been able to — reap the benefits of Daniel’s wonderful tenure, we’re not going to think about or talk about anybody else, actors to play the role or storylines or anything. We just wanna live in the moment, the present.”
Previously, Elba expressed his disappointment that some fans do not want him to portray the character.
“You just get disheartened when you get people from a generational point of view going, ‘It can’t be.’ And it really turns out to be the color of my skin,” he noted to Vanity Fair in 2019. “And then if I get it and it didn’t work, or it did work, would it be because of the color of my skin? That’s a difficult position to put myself into when I don’t need to.”
He continued, “James Bond is a hugely coveted, iconic, beloved character that takes audiences on this massive escapism journey. Of course, if someone said to me, ‘Do you want to play James Bond?’ I’d be like, ‘Yeah!’ That’s fascinating to me. But it’s not something I’ve expressed, like, ‘Yeah, I wanna be the black James Bond.’
“Because, by the way, we’re talking about a spy. If you really want to break it down, the more less-obvious it is, the better,” he added.
In 2015, however, one person was dissatisfied with Elba‘s theoretical casting. “007“ author Anthony Horowitz told the Daily Mail that Elba was “too street.“
“Idris Elba is a terrific actor, but I can think of other black actors who would do it better,” he said at the time. “For me, Idris Elba is a bit too rough to play the part. It’s not a color issue. I think he is probably a bit too ‘street’ for Bond. Is it a question of being suave? Yeah.”
