They’ll print anything these days. Despite the support of legions of fans and the possibility of offering a bold new take on the character, for Sir Idris Elba, the name was never Bond, James Bond. Speaking to British GQ, Elba, who has spent nearly 20 years as the fan-cast frontrunner for the role of James Bond, says that rumors of him taking the role were “never legit” and “not a realistic thing.”
British GQ takes things back to just before the Obama administration, when Daniel Craig said, “If we can have a Black U.S. president, we can have a black James Bond […] The Obama election is a wake-up call for the whole world. I’m a real fan of Obama because I like his political ideas. And I think it’s the right moment for a Black James Bond.” Aside from how funny it is that Craig was searching for an exit strategy two films into his Bond run, this was the moment that Elba’s name first began being bandied about in the conversation. Now that that conversation has begun with Amazon MGM starting its search for the first new Bond in more than 20 years, Elba solidifies his stance: “It was never legit. It was always just a rumour.”
Though Elba was “complimented” by the reaction, he doesn’t believe a Black James Bond is likely to happen because “in realistic terms, some markets just don’t go for that.” We suppose he’s mostly talking about the countries where Disney controversially shrunk John Boyega’s presence on the Force Awakens poster. “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.”
To Elba, there’s no point in changing Bond. “James Bond was written how he was written for a reason,” he says. The character “is so unrealistic, so a hint of reality is good.” Risking a few eye rolls, he continues, “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.”
It is a bit disappointing to see Elba shrug off casting a person of color to avoid being “woke” as if representation is the beginning and end of the conversation. It’s not like a Black Bond would spend the movie gathering everyone’s pronouns—assuming that’s what “woke” means at this precise moment in time. However, saying that a character that’s been around for 80 years should stay stuck in the era he was written in undermines the decades of changes to that character. Would Ian Fleming have approved of Bond’s testicles being mutilated in Casino Royale or of making Blofeld Bond’s brother in Spectre? There’s no way of knowing. (For the record, he would’ve approved of the pigeon double-take in Moonraker.) But it’s Elba’s life and career, and he certainly has a more complicated relationship with the Bond thing after 20 years of rumors and never getting the job. Bond was written in Fleming’s post-War years as a rebuttal to Britain’s declining colonial and imperial power, and that’s where he shall remain.
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