Idris Elba explains why a Black James Bond won’t happen: ‘Some markets won’t go for that’

3 min readLos AngelesJun 8, 2026 06:56 PM IST

For over a decade, James Bond casting stories have followed Idris Elba but the British star says there was never any truth in them and he is not even sure the fictional spy should change.

“It was never legit. It was always just a rumour,” Elba told GQ in an interview.

The stories of Idris Elba being the first Black Bond started to emerge after the 2008 US presidential elections when the then Bond, Daniel Craig, said Barack Obama’s victory suggested that they had reached the stage for a new kind of Bond.

Elba believes fans took Craig’s comments seriously and it just spiralled into something else.

“I’ve always felt that it’s not a realistic thing. James Bond was written how he was written for a reason. But I was complimented by it. And also, I think, in realistic terms, some markets just don’t go for that. Bond is big all over the world. And (audiences) won’t (all) go for a Black male, an African male, playing Bond. That’s not what they like in their culture. Period.”

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Idris Elba, known for hit shows like The Wire, Luther and movies such as Beasts of No Nation, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, American Gangster, A House of Dynamite, Thor, The Suicide Squad and Masters of the Universe, also does not want Bond to be “woke”.

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“Bond is so unrealistic, so a hint of reality is good, but let’s not try and make it woke. I think you’ve got to be pure to what it is: escapism. Don’t try and answer the world’s taste. Just be Bond.”

Based on lan Fleming’s novels, James Bond is a fictional character that has been further immortalised in many movies with actors Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig playing the 007 agent in different films.

The rights for a future Bond film are with Amazon which bought the MGM studio as well as the IP rights from long-term Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson. The hunt for a new face to play Bond is still on after Daniel Craig bid goodbye to the franchise with No Time to Die in 2021, his fifth and final outing as the character and the 25th film in the long-running franchise.