{"id":852613,"date":"2026-06-08T10:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T10:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/852613\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T10:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T10:03:14","slug":"idris-elba-bond-rumors-not-true-audiences-wont-go-for-a-black-male","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/852613\/","title":{"rendered":"Idris Elba: Bond Rumors Not True, Audiences ‘Won’t Go for a Black Male’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIdris Elba<\/a> is putting those James Bond<\/a> rumors to bed. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe 53-year-old acclaimed actor \u2014 who tends to play heroic characters and currently stars in \u201cMasters of the Universe\u201d alongside Nicholas Galitzine \u2014 has been tipped to take over the 007 role since before Daniel Craig\u2019s departure in 2021. But in a new cover interview with British GQ<\/a>, Elba says the rumors were \u201cnever legit.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always felt that it\u2019s not a realistic thing,\u201d he told British GQ. \u201cJames Bond was written how he was written for a reason. But I was complimented by it. And also, I think, in realistic terms, some markets just don\u2019t go for that. Bond is big all over the world. And [audiences] won\u2019t [all] go for a Black male, an African male, playing Bond. That\u2019s not what they like in their culture. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut he also said he doesn\u2019t necessarily think that Bond should change. \u201cBond is so unrealistic, so a hint of reality is good, but let\u2019s not try and make it woke,\u201d Elba continued. \u201cI think you\u2019ve got to be pure to what it is: escapism. Don\u2019t try and answer the world\u2019s taste. Just be Bond.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rumor mill as to who will be the next Bond has been heating up as auditions have officially started. Prolific casting director Nina Gold (\u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d \u201cThe Crown\u201d) is leading the charge for Amazon MGM Studios, who took creative control of the franchise last year. The next Bond movie is set to be directed by \u201cDune\u201d helmer Denis Villeneuve, and Variety has heard that he and the studio are looking for someone on the younger side to step into Bond\u2019s shoes. Tom Francis, the 26-year-old British actor best known for his Olivier-winning role opposite Nicole Scherzinger in the stage musical \u201cSunset Boulevard,\u201d has already auditioned, a source told Variety last month<\/a>. Other stars heavily rumored to be in the mix include Jacob Elordi, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Callum Turner. <\/p>\n

\n\tRead Elba\u2019s full British GQ interview here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Idris Elba is putting those James Bond rumors to bed. The 53-year-old acclaimed actor \u2014 who tends to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":852614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,21102,15223,53,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-852613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-idris-elba","tag-james-bond","tag-movies","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}