“My name’s not getting thrown out, no way,” he told People<\/a>. “They’re going younger. And I wish them all the luck of the world. I can’t wait \u2013 it’s going to be amazing.<\/p>\n Variety\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Related: UK film release dates<\/a><\/p>\n “I’m honestly not in the race ever. I wasn’t in the race in the first place.”<\/p>\n A few years ago, Elba reflected on being linked to the role, saying he felt put off amid a racist backlash<\/a> over the rumours.<\/p>\n “Essentially, it was a huge compliment that every corner of the world except from some corners, which we will not talk about, were really happy about the idea that I could be considered,” he told the SmartLess<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n “Those that weren\u2019t happy about the idea made the whole thing disgusting and off-putting because it became about race. It became about nonsense, and I got the brunt of it.”<\/p>\n MGM\/Nicole Dove<\/p>\n The next Bond movie is being directed by Dune’s Denis Villeneuve and written by Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight<\/a>, which comes after Amazon MGM took over creative control of the franchise<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n Callum Turner and Jacob Elordi are among favourites to take over the role, with Elordi recently earning the backing of former Bond star Rosamund Pike<\/a>, who called him a “fantastic actor” as she added to GQ<\/a>: “He certainly looks like a great Bond. I mean, why not?”<\/p>\n It was also claimed on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast that Elordi could be in the frame, with journalist Marina Hyde saying: “I have heard from a number of people now that Jacob Elordi has kind of moved into pole position.”<\/p>\n Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/p>\n The new edition of Living Legends, a collector’s edition exploring the royal family, is here! Buy The Royals in newsagents or online<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies<\/a>, TV<\/a> and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME<\/a> and Screen International<\/a>. \u00a0Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings<\/a> to Love Is Blind<\/a>, and is equally in his element crossing every ‘t’ and dotting every ‘i’ as a sub-editor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Idris Elba has said he was never “in the race” to be the next James Bond. The Luther…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[154377,147950,379,207233,381,96,2788,190731,1156,2839,207232,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-608491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-collection-james-bond","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-16c7fd30-bec4-490c-b6e3-3a09c850d3c3","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-hasproduct-true","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-movies","tag-shorttitle-idris-elba-says-he-was-never-in-the-race-to-be-next-bond","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"idris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ff3421c0-71d1-4f7a-98d2-8355f748259e.jpg\" "\\"Idris")
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