The name is Elba. Idris Elba. The ‘Luther’ star seemed to stoke the longstanding rumors that he’ll be the next 007 by taking an ‘awkward’ selfie with the current James Bond, Daniel Craig!
At this point, Idris Elba, 46, is just trolling us. For what seems like forever, he has been reported to be the next man to take over the role of James Bond, and he apparently had a bit of fun over these rumors during the 2019 Golden Globes. During the Jan. 6 event in Beverly Hills, California, The Wire star took a selfie…with Daniel Craig, 50, the current (and soon retiring?) 007. “Awks…” he captioned the photo posted to his Instagram Stories.
This is not the first – and probably not the last – time that Idris has stoked the fires about the possibility of him being the next Bond. In August 2018, he tweeted a picture of his heavily filtered forehead, captioning the shot, “my name’s Elba, Idris Elba.” Reciting James Bond’s signature catchphrase put fans into a mood, but Idris told them to find their chill. “Don’t believe the HYPE…” Supposedly, he was responding to a viral Esquire headline that said he was on the brink of being dubbed the next James Bond, per Vox, but instead of squashing fans’ hopes, it only seemed to give them life.
2018 actually marked the 10-year anniversary of the rumor that Idris was going to be the next James Bond, according to Vox. In 2008, after Barack Obama’s ascension to the United States presidency, Daniel Craig told Italian media that it was “the right moment for a black James Bond.” While actors like Will Smith and Jamie Foxx volunteered to take the role, named like Djimon Hounsou and Chiwetel Ejiofor were also bandied around online. Someone suggested Idris, and it took off from there. For over a decade, whenever Daniel Craig said he was sick of being 007, fans have wondered if it would finally be Idris’s turn.
Daniel is set to reprise the role in Bond 25, the current title for the next James Bond movie, set for a Feb. 14, 2020 release date. As for Idris, he’d like to see the character change up afterward. “There’s no such thing as a black ‘Bond,’ “ Idris said at the Variety Studio presented by AT&T at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. “Are we interested in having a Bond character other than being a male? 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?”
Be the first to comment