Idris Elba Won't Play James Bond

Pacific Rim star Idris Elba has seemingly ruled out the possibility of playing James Bond, [...]

Idris Elba Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim

star Idris Elba has seemingly ruled out the possibility of playing James Bond, dismissing the long-standing rumors in an English TV interview. "It's a rumor that's gotten out of control, basically -- but that's all it is," Elba said on ITV's Lorraine. "There's no truth in it whatsoever." Elba has become an actor whose name is bandied around for almost every major, open job in show business; last year, he was one of the rumored frontrunners to play the new Doctor on Doctor Who. More recently, he reaced enthusiastically when a fan suggested he should play John Stewart, the Green Lantern in the next batch of DC Comics movies. Apparently, though, he's tired of fielding questions about starring as James Bond--and about being the first actor of color to take the Bond role. "Really? James Bond? I didn't know that was still sort of in the mix," Elba told HuffPost Entertainment back in November. "I say it all the time, but if it was to ever happen and if I was ever to get offered that role, that would be the will of a nation. That would be like, 'Wow, human beings are really powerful. They really made that happen, because [producer Barbara Broccoli] certainly didn't.'" "We don't say 'white Bond,' we just say 'Bond,'" the Luther star noted on Lorraine. "So it suddenly becomes a black man and he's a 'black Bond.' So I hate that phrase." The current Bond, Daniel Craig, is expected to play the role twice more before his contract expiration.

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