Idris Elba strongly considered to be next James Bond by producers

[Indian Ink]

double post. again

[Joker Venom]

10 years ago, I would have been thrilled at this news. Not so much now, and that's only because I think Idris is too old to take on the role, when they would likely want him for at least a three film deal.

They have the perfect person waiting in the wings in the form of Henry Cavill, and he actually WANTS to do it. They need to make it happen.

[Sighphi]

it is time" for a non-white actor to take on the iconic role.

What? Why?

[Hiromi]

I'm willing to bet Sony only "strongly considers" this whenever Daniel Craig contract talks are going on in an effort to get some leverage, Elba will likely be pushing if not at 50 by the time they're ready to shoot Bond 26

[BeastieRunner]

Cavill and Elba are both British so either is fine by me.

Personally, I want somebody you don't expect. Elba and Cavill should be Bond villains.

[ChrisIII]

This rumor has pretty much been going around since 2014 or so I think. As for Bond and sexism, the Timothy Dalton films did tone things down a bit in the late 80s, although for different reasons.


Regarding Cavill, he did do a screen test for Casino Royale. https://www.thebookbond.com/2011/04/...s-bond-in.html

[AndrewCrossett]

I'd like to see this happen just to make Ian Fleming flip over in his grave...

[ChrisIII]

The films have pretty much been a seperate entity from the novels anyway. While the early Connery films stuck fairly close to the novels (Although Connery's Bond was considerably more cheerful than the sometimes melanchology book Bond), starting with "You Only Live Twice" (Although OHMSS was kind of close) the movies really started to strongly differ from their source material, although some of the plot elements of later films were borrowed here and there from Fleming's works ("Moonraker's" novel has many elements that wound up in Goldeneye and Die Another Day, Spectre's Oberhauser origin is largely based on Octopussy etc.)

Dalton and Craig have the attitude of the Book Bond more or less, although their plots differ. The Casino Royale novel doesn't have the movie's hour-long setup of Bond tracking down the link to Le Chiffre, for example; it starts right at the Casino.

[ChrisIII]

The films have pretty much been a seperate entity from the novels anyway. While the early Connery films stuck fairly close to the novels (Although Connery's Bond was considerably more cheerful than the sometimes melanchology book Bond), starting with "You Only Live Twice" (Although OHMSS was kind of close) the movies really started to strongly differ from their source material, although some of the plot elements of later films were borrowed here and there from Fleming's works ("Moonraker's" novel has many elements that wound up in Goldeneye and Die Another Day, Spectre's Oberhauser origin is largely based on Octopussy etc.)

Dalton and Craig have the attitude of the Book Bond more or less, although their plots differ. The Casino Royale novel doesn't have the movie's hour-long setup of Bond tracking down the link to Le Chiffre, for example; it starts right at the Casino.

[ArminTamzarian]

Don't hold your breath. It was widely assumed that Clive Owen would be taking over the role after Pierce Brosnan which of course never happened. This sounds like a off-hand comment that was blown out of proportion by the media on a slow news day.

[Powerboy]

I'd like to see this happen just to make Ian Fleming flip over in his grave...

Yes I read "Casino Royale" and then tried to read "Live and Let Die" and ended up stopping partly because of all the assumptions that would be blatantly racist and ridiculous even by the standards of the 1970s when I was reading it though they may have been common beliefs when Fleming wrote it.

I think we've just reached that time when there's nothing wrong with flipping some things on their heads. A female Doctor Who. A black James Bond. The alternative is possibly to retire certain outdated characters and introduce new ones. I'm referring here to Bond, not the Doctor. Retiring James Bond altogether and going with the latest 007 who is not James Bond could work although I suspect that might take more flack than having him be black. Saying James Bond has traditionally been white is all well and good but he also traditionally was not blond. So what's the issue?

[jump]

I've seen this rumour floating about for years but this seems the weakest. They've just got Daniel Craig to come back which would have been a good time to switch Bonds and at this point Idris maybe too old, he's age is fine now but you want someone younger for an ongoing franchise.

[Cmbmool]

I think he deserves the role as he earned the part given his past acting roles. So YES to Idris Elba being James Bond.

[Panic]

Retiring James Bond altogether and going with the latest 007 who is not James Bond could work although I suspect that might take more flack than having him be black.

I think that's a horrible idea as it devalues the idea of Bond altogether. If the producers have got an actor who they feel is right for the part and who they want to work with they will probably just go with him, regardless of ethnicity. Felix Leiter is a white character who is played by a black actor - no overcomplicated explanation is needed for the audience to grasp that movies aren't real and don't need a slavishly literal interpretation.

[ChrisIII]

Bernie Casey also played Felix in the 1983 Thunderball remake/re-adaptation Never Say never Again. Although like the Craig films, that was largely outside the continuity of the 1962-2002 films.

Felix is also a character who was pretty much played by a different actor every time he showed up (with the exception of David Hedison who was in LALD and LTK). Originally Jeoffrey Lord was going to stick around, but asked for too much money. It's kind of funny how inconsistent the character is; You've got the "Aw, shucks!" performance of Cec Linder, the more Jack Lordish Rik Van Nutter, the annoyed Burton, the bland Terry....even Hedison was pretty much doing Burton's act of cleaning up after Bond in LALD, rather than the "old friends" performance in LTK.


I wonder if this would also mean another continuity reset, or the Elba films would keep the current supporting cast (Fiennes, Harris,Whishaw and Kineer).