The ‘Idris Elba for James Bond’ conversation has been rumbling on for years now – always in speculative terms, with lashings of wish fulfillment, skepticism, and no clear indication from Elba himself that he even wants to take on the legendary spy. And now, even though Daniel Craig is back for likely one final round in Danny Boyle’s Bond 25, it appears Elba is still a focal point of the ‘next Bond’ conversation – whether he’s interested in the role or not.
The latest news on the situation comes through a he-said, she-said, filter – so take it with a pinch of salt and a few vodka martinis – but all news on this is news, so here it is: director Antoine Fuqua spoke in an interview with the Daily Star about a conversation he had with Bond head honcho Barbara Broccoli, who reportedly told him that “it is time” for a non-white Bond, and that Elba is a frontrunner to be the next 007. That, of course, is by no means any sort of confirmation that Elba will join the series – but any update on the conversation is sure to whip the fan frenzy up again. There's also the fact that Elba plans to follow up his directorial debut Yardie with an amibitious adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, as actor, director, producer and musician – so he may well be too busy for Bond.
As for Elba’s own ideas about who could be the next Bond, earlier this year he discussed the idea of a woman taking on the role with Variety. “Are we interested in having a Bond character other than being a male?” he said. “Could be a woman, could be a black woman, could be a white woman, but I think, that character, everybody would like to see it have — do something different with it, why not?”
Either way, it’s going to be a while before a new Bond is announced – Boyle’s Craig-starring film is set to begin shooting soon for a November 2019 release, and it would be reasonable to expect that the next actor for the role won’t be announced until several months after that. Will Elba want to play it as much as everyone else wants him to? We’ll have to wait and see – with emphasis on the ‘wait’.
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