{"id":661328,"date":"2026-05-23T23:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T23:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661328\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T23:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T23:42:09","slug":"idris-elba-to-new-james-bond-casting-im-honestly-not-in-the-race-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661328\/","title":{"rendered":"Idris Elba to New James Bond Casting: ‘I’m Honestly Not in the Race Ever’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite years of rumors insisting the opposite, Idris Elba said in an interview published Saturday that he\u2019s never really been considered for the role of James Bond. \u201cMy name\u2019s not getting thrown out, no way,\u201d he told People<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going younger. And I wish them all the luck of the world. I can\u2019t wait \u2014 it\u2019s going to be amazing,\u201d Elba added. \u201cI\u2019m honestly not in the race ever. I wasn\u2019t in the race in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rumors surrounding Elba\u2019s potential casting as the British spy date back to at least 2011. \u201cI\u2019d definitely consider it,\u201d Elba told NPR<\/a> at the time when asked about playing the character. \u201cI just don\u2019t want to be the Black James Bond. Sean Connery wasn\u2019t the Scottish James Bond, and Daniel Craig wasn\u2019t the blue-eyed James Bond. So if I played him, I don\u2019t want to be called the Black James Bond.\u201d<\/p>\n

He appeared to shut down the possibility a few years later. <\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t 007 supposed to handsome? Glad you think I\u2019ve got a shot! Happy New year people,\u201d Elba tweeted in 2014<\/a>. His message appeared to be inspired in part by a leaked January 2014 email from Amy Pascal to Elizabeth Cantillon, the former executive vice president of production for Columbia Pictures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdris should be the next Bond,\u201d Pascal wrote. <\/p>\n

In August 2018, Elba offered simply a pointed, \u201cNo,\u201d<\/a> when asked by the hosts of \u201cGood Morning Britain\u201d if he would take on the role. <\/p>\n

The quest to find a new Bond<\/a> began in May of this year. \u201cThe search for the next James Bond is underway,\u201d a spokesperson for Amazon MGM Studios said in a statement. \u201cWhile we don\u2019t plan to comment on specific details during the casting process, we\u2019re excited to share more news with 007 fans as soon as the time is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denis Villeneuve is set to direct the upcoming films, and British casting director Nina Gold (\u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d \u201cThe Crown\u201d) is spearheading the search.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Idris\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite years of rumors insisting the opposite, Idris Elba said in an interview published Saturday that he\u2019s never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,81549,37117,206],"class_list":["post-661328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-idris-elba","tag-james-bond","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}