Idris Elba has shut down rumours he was set to be the next James Bond, saying the claims are not in any way “a truth”.
“I love the Bond franchise, I’m very close to the producers,” Elba told The Guardian recently.
“We were all kind of laughing about the rumours because they are just that.”
This is the first time Elba has spoken out about the lingering rumours, which saw many claiming Bond producers had been considering him for the star role for years.
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“I can’t speak for [the producers], but from my perspective, there’s never been any sort of truth to any of it,” he added. “It’s a compliment, and it’s an honour – but it’s not a truth.”
Th rumours first emerged in 2018 when a leaked email by Sony Pictures executive Amy Pascal revealed she felt “Idris should be the next Bond.”
The idea gained some weight when lead producer Barbara Broccoli claimed on Deadline’s Crew Call podcast last year that Elba had “been part of the conversation” for who would play Bond next.
Broccoli later confirmed to Deadline that “nobody’s in the running” for the role.
“There isn’t a script and we can’t come up with one until we decide how we’re going to approach the next film because, really, it’s a reinvention of Bond. We’re reinventing who he is and that takes time,” she said at the time.
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Broccoli also revealed filming for the next Bond film is at least two years away, with a release date not imagined until 2024 at the soonest, or even 2026.
Nevertheless, The Sun claimed last year that Elba had taken himself out of these talks as he had a goal to pursue other projects, not just Bond.
Speaking with The Guardian, Elba gushed over his current action franchise, Luther, which he has been starring in since 2010.
Likening his character John Luther to Bond, and even Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible, the actor said: “These are solitary figures that go off and have conviction and style and grace, take out the bad guy. But I think with John there’s a sort of grounded relatability. That’s the space where I think I can take this franchise further and deeper.”
So far rumoured actors to be on the Bond call card include Kick-Ass actor Aaron Taylor Johnson, Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy and Bridgerton actor Regé Jean-Page.
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