Idris Elba wants to be James Bond. We want him to be James Bond. Can the power of fandom make it happen?!
Although Daniel Craig still has one more Bond movie in his contract after Spectre, fans started chanting Idris Elba’s name a long time ago.
The Luther and The Wire alum is a powerful on-screen presence, and would lend an air of both sophistication and strength to 007.
The desire to see Elba as Bond was made all the more obvious earlier this week, when author Anthony Horowitz, who is penning an upcoming James Bond continuation novel, phrased himself poorly in an interview, claiming that Elba was “too street” and not suave enough for the role.
Fans came out in droves to condemn Horowitz’s racially loaded comments (the author has since apologized), and to provide much pictorial evidence of just how suave Elba really is.
Elba himself posted a tongue-in-cheek response on Instagram, showing Horowitz’s apology and writing, “Always keep smiling! It takes no energy and never hurts! Learned that from the Street!”
The actor is of course well aware of how many people want to see him as James Bond, but has previously told Variety that he’d be hesitant to take the role, because, “I just don’t want to be the black James Bond. … If I played him, I don’t want to be called the black James Bond.”
Being the suave James Bond is another matter, however. In the wake of Horowitz’s comments, Variety has posted a few snippets of an interview they did with Elba in August, where the actor encourages fans to keep up the good work.
Related: Spooky new Spectre poster shows James Bond ready to die
“If human beings want to know if there’s any connectivity between all of us, the one thing I’ve heard around the world universally is that, ‘You’ll be great at James Bond!’,” Elba said. “If it should happen, that’s proof there’s connectivity amongst human beings. If everyone wants something, they can make it happen. That would be true.”
That said, there have been no official conversations… yet. “If it was to happen, there you go — the will of the nation,” Elba mused.
Let’s make it happen, Internet!
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