{"id":55250,"date":"2026-05-25T19:06:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=55250"},"modified":"2026-05-25T19:06:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:06:35","slug":"idris-elba-was-never-in-the-race-to-play-james-bond-for-new-007-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=55250","title":{"rendered":"Idris Elba Was Never in the Race to Play James Bond for New 007 Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Idris Elba isn&#8217;t just taking himself out of the running to play James Bond in the <u>new 007 movie<\/u> \u2013 he says he was never in the race to begin with.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The Wire and Sonic the Hedgehog star commented on fan speculation that he may be the top choice to play the next live-action 00 agent during a recent interview with <u>People<\/u>. It&#8217;s a casting choice many have hoped to see Amazon MGM go with, but the 53-year-old actor made it sound like it&#8217;s not a possibility he gave much thought to.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;My name&#8217;s not getting thrown out, no way,&#8221; Elba said. &#8220;They&#8217;re going younger. And I wish them all the luck of the world. I can&#8217;t wait \u2014 it&#8217;s going to be amazing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" decoding=\"async\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\">Idris Elba. Photo by Frederic J. Brown\/AFP via Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">He continued: &#8220;I&#8217;m honestly not in the race ever. I wasn&#8217;t in the race in the first place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Amazon is <u>on the hunt for the next James Bond<\/u>, and Nina Gold, who previously helped bring in actors for Star Wars and Game of Thrones, is said to be leading the charge as casting director. There&#8217;s been <u>no sign as far as who will take the spot<\/u> in the <u>Denis Villeneuve-directed<\/u> film, but Elba is a name that has <u>swirled in 007 circles for more than 15 years<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Despite the ongoing calls to see him suit up as 007, it&#8217;s never been a role Elba seemed particularly interested in. He already <u>felt &#8220;too old&#8221; to play the character<\/u> in 2016, saying the then-fresh rumors at the time were the &#8220;wildest in the world.&#8221; He outright <u>said &#8220;no&#8221;<\/u> when asked about the part just two years after that.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">He <u>told the Smartless podcast<\/u> in 2023 that he considered it &#8220;a huge compliment&#8221; that so many people believed he could play 007. However, he said at the time that, when some chose to make the conversation about race, he started to find &#8220;the whole thing disgusting and off-putting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-video\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">That didn&#8217;t stop chatter from kicking back up when former Bond Daniel Craig hung up his tuxedo after <u>No Time to Die<\/u> premiered in 2021. It sounds like Elba wants to put the talk of Bond behind him, especially as he promotes his new movie, Masters of the Universe.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;Masters of the Universe was my thing,&#8221; he told People. &#8220;It was something that I watched a lot as a kid.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;To get to play Duncan and change him \u2014 make him to look like me \u2014 was a real treat. I got to be a bit comedic and big, so I went for it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"poll-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">While we wait for the new, untitled 007 movie to come to theaters, you can read about <u>how to watch every film in the series in order<\/u>. You can also check out <u>what Spider-Man star Tom Holland had to say about rumors about his potential casting<\/u> last summer.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Photo by Frederic J. Brown \/ AFP via Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He&#8217;s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/idris-elba-says-he-was-never-in-the-race-to-play-james-bond-for-new-007-movie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Idris Elba isn&#8217;t just taking himself out of the running to play James Bond in the new 007 movie \u2013 he says he was never&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[5543,23450,23449,80,1543,2651,570],"class_list":["post-55250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-bond","tag-elba","tag-idris","tag-james","tag-movie","tag-play","tag-race","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}