There have been so many rumours surrounding who will be the next actor to take on the role of James Bond once Daniel Craig’s contract is up. One name that consistently comes up is Idris Elba, someone fans would love to see in the role.
However, there’s a really sad reason the actor doesn’t want to take on the role and it’ll probably make you very mad.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Idris revealed why he constantly shuts the idea down, and it’s pretty simple really. The actor doesn’t want to seriously consider the role because he’s worried about the racist backlash he’s already experienced following the rumours.
“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 colour of my skin. And then if I get it and it didn’t work, or it did work, would it be because of the colour of my skin? That’s a difficult position to put myself into when I don’t need to.”
He did admit, however, that while he won’t go out of his way to get the role, he’s very intrigued by the idea of a black James Bond, and if the role was seriously offered to him he’d take it.
“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.”
So, what we’ll take from this is that there’s a tiny chance it could still happen?
It’s rumoured that the next James Bond project will be called A Reason To Die, but there’s been no confirmation of the title by anyone associated with the film so we’ll take that with a grain of salt.
However, we have been gifted with this video from the set of the movie:
