Idris Elba for Bond?

Saipanne

Anyone else hear this rumour?

Iranoutofideas

An awful token gesture. Ridiculous really.

He's a great actor but this would go totally against the character as outlined in the novels.

Besides Craig has one more movie guaranteed and possibly another meaning he'd be at most 52-53 when finished.

Elba, in that case, would be pushing 47 or so.

He's too old to take over for a run of movies after Craig and doing one is pointless.

Tipsy McSwagger

Fassbender should be the next Bond

Saipanne

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Fassbender should be the next Bond

He's a better actor than that.

Jawgap

yes, apparently it came out through the Sony hack - the head of Sony floated him as a potential next Bond, and indicated he was their preferred candidate - at the moment.

I'd agree with Fassbender - reckon he'd make a great Bond - closer to the physical description of him in the books too.

shalalala

I think either would be great but I was genuinely surprised that Craig was picked the last time (not that I wasn't delighted) more that I have been expecting a black bond for several years now and Idras would be the best choice.

salmocab

Don't like the idea of a black Bond Im a fan of the books and like the movies to be more in the style of the books. Although as long as the invisible car never turns up again I don't mind.

FortuneChip

I placed a bet on Fassbender just before First Class came out, but I've lost faith in it now. I don't think he needs another franchise. I'd sooner see him push himself in more serious stuff.

I don't think Elba is that much of a token gesture. OK, he doens't meet the physical description, but he's a cool character, great charisma, and he's a powerful looking guy too.

While I'm not remotely interested in seeing it, 50 Shades of Grey could see Jamie Dornan brought into the rumour mill and at the moment he'd be my front runner (not preference, but from a guessing POV).
If they're looking for someone akin to Daniel Craig's Bond then I think Dan Stevens is a great shout.
25/1 and 14/1 respectively.

Tom Hardy is 3/1 favourite, but I can't imagine him wanting any part of it.
I stand corrected, Elba is now 7/4 favourite!

loyatemu

He is only 4 years younger than Daniel Craig, and Craig has signed up for the next 2 movies, so Elba will be way too old.

Sleepy

Tokenism of the highest order, what's next, Jackie Chan starring in a remake of Roots?

James Bond is the orphan of aristocratic British couple who died in a skiing accident. Unless you're fundamentally changing the character, no black actor suits the role. I think Idris Elba is a fantastic actor and could make a fantastic 006 (I've always wanted to watch a Bond movie where he works with another Double-O - the flashback in Goldeneye was great) but if you're going to cast him as Bond, you're throwing out the characters origins so may as well have him as an American suffering from amnesia...

Would second FortuneChip's suggestion of Dan Stevens (thought I'd give him dark hair for the role).

loyatemu

Sleepy wrote: »

James Bond is the orphan of aristocratic British couple who died in a skiing accident.

Can black people not be aristocratic, or ski?

Fleming envisaged him as looking like Hoagy Carmichael:



He didn't envisage him as Irish (Brosnan), Welsh (Dalton), Scottish, (Connery) or blonde (Craig)...

salmocab

loyatemu wrote: »

Can black people not be aristocratic, or ski?

Fleming envisaged him as looking like Hoagy Carmichael:



He didn't envisage him as Irish (Brosnan), Welsh (Dalton), Scottish, (Connery) or blonde (Craig)...

Well Dalton and Brosnan played him as English and Fleming did write him as Scottish although if I remember right he was brought up in England after his parents died.

Saipanne

I'm quite certain there were no black British aristocratic families.

Royale with Cheese

I think he'd actually be pretty good if he was ten years younger, definitely too old for the part by the time Craig retires though.

Wedwood

salmocab wrote: »

Well Dalton and Brosnan played him as English and Fleming did write him as Scottish although if I remember right he was brought up in England after his parents died.

I think Fleming gave Bond his Scottish heritage after Connery was cast in the role.

MagicMarker

Ahh ffs. There have been what, 20 bond movies? I think it's kinda okay to deviate from the books somewhat at this stage.

If there can be a black Annie, there can be a black Bond, Elba would be great in the role imo.

Jawgap

Wedwood wrote: »

I think Fleming gave Bond his Scottish heritage after Connery was cast in the role.

I thought his father was supposed to be Scottish and his mother was Swiss-French.

indough

It would require another reboot of the franchise not long after the last one, with changes to the characters history. Which raises the question, why not just cast him as another double 0 agent? If they really wanted to then there could even be a small crossover with Craig's last Bond film in order to establish the character

MagicMarker

indough wrote: »

with changes to the characters history.

Why? You don't need to mention any history of any kind.

dodzy

Age is against him now but I think Clive Owen would have played a good Bond.

indough

MagicMarker wrote: »

Why? You don't need to mention any history of any kind.

It has already been mentioned in the last film

MagicMarker

indough wrote: »

It has already been mentioned in the last film

So? Was it mentioned in the film before that? Or the 20+ before that? Frankly, no one cares.

No one goes to a Bond movie to see character development.

Jawgap

I think there was a suggestion at one time that '007' and 'James bond' could be aliases - used as a nom de guerre and therefore amenable to slotting anyone into the role!

Maximus Alexander

So what I'm getting from this thread is that the deeply intricate, internally consistent narrative of Bond, its powerful social commentary and its stark, and incredibly important analysis of morality in the modern age would all be undermined if the protagonist's skin tone were to change.

indough

MagicMarker wrote: »

So? Was it mentioned in the film before that? Or the 20+ before that?

Irrelevant, Skyfall has happened now, so the character has a history that we know about. The 20+ films before that don't exist in the current Bond universe

Jawgap wrote: »

I think there was a suggestion at one time that '007' and 'James bond' could be aliases - used as a nom de guerre and therefore amenable to slotting anyone into the role!

Yes, but that was just a fan theory. The previous incarnations had a shared history.

MagicMarker

indough wrote: »

Irrelevant, Skyfall has happened now, so the character has a history that we know about. The 20+ films before that don't exist in the current Bond universe

Good heavens, now we are tied to everything that happened in the last movie, and can't ever get out of it unless we do a "reboot".

My word, I hope the new Bond is blonde then, like Daniel Craig was in the last movie. How could they possibly explain a Bond with brown hair??? Does he use Just For Men?

Bond is Blonde! Bond is Blonde! Bond is Blonde! Bond is Blonde!

Sleepy

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

So what I'm getting from this thread is that the deeply intricate, internally consistent narrative of Bond, its powerful social commentary and its stark, and incredibly important analysis of morality in the modern age would all be undermined if the protagonist's skin tone were to change.

The British Aristocracy weren't exactly noted for their indifference to skin tone. While I'm far from an expert on the British "Who's Who", I'm unaware of any black members of the British aristocracy even today?

If you change Bond's skin-tone you'd need to change his back-story as, to be as blunt as I can be, it'd be more likely that Bond's great-grandparents would have owned someone of Elba's skin-tone than had children by them.

Maximus Alexander

Sleepy wrote: »

The British Aristocracy weren't exactly noted for their indifference to skin tone. While I'm far from an expert on the British "Who's Who", I'm unaware of any black members of the British aristocracy even today?

If you change Bond's skin-tone you'd need to change his back-story as, to be as blunt as I can be, it'd be more likely that Bond's great-grandparents would have owned someone of Elba's skin-tone than had children by them.

This doesn't seem particularly important, especially for a film with a plot summary of:

exposition look-a-gadget sneak sneak karate-chop pew pew vrooom vroooooooom *explosion*

danrua01

Don't see why not, he'd be good in that role

Starokan

I think Idris Elba would make an awesome james bond, bond is a charismatic debonair secret agent, Elba would fit that bill perfectly. Daniel Craig has made Bond slightly darker and edgier imo, I think elba would continue that development perfectly.

Harry Palmr

I wonder what would happen if Shaft was a white?

dante2015

hell lets get Jackie chan to play bond after we are done with a black bond

No no no and no

please god dont ruin another movie

Speedsie

MagicMarker wrote: »

Bond is Blonde! Bond is Blonde! Bond is Blonde! Bond is Blonde!

Surely it's 'Bond is Blond', unless he also went in for gender reassignment.

Sleepy

That'll be next Speedsie, The name's Bond, Jane Bond...

MagicMarker

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I wonder what would happen if Shaft was a white?

Well Shaft is a blaxploitation film, so it's not really comparable. Casting a white man as Shaft would be like casting a black man as a slave driver in 12 Years a Slave.

Speedsie

Sleepy wrote: »

That'll be next Speedsie, The name's Bond, Jane Bond...

Was trying to think of the feminine of James, Jane will do nicely!

Keggers2

I'm not sure about Elba as Bond.



But Elba as Batman, that I want to see.

RobbingBandit

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I wonder what would happen if Shaft was a white?

He wouldn't be a complicated man who a woman could understand now would he.

RobbingBandit

Elba for Baron Samedi would be a great choice, he is a scary bastard without being a voodoo witch doctor would be an awesome revival for that character.

FortuneChip

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I wonder what would happen if Shaft was a white?

Michael Cera is linked.

Hande hoche!

As others have mentioned would like to see Fassbender give it a go. On a side note, Liam Neeson would make a great Shaft.

Iranoutofideas

MagicMarker wrote: »

Why? You don't need to mention any history of any kind.

They did in Skyfall.

MagicMarker wrote: »

So? Was it mentioned in the film before that? Or the 20+ before that? Frankly, no one cares.

No one goes to a Bond movie to see character development.

Speak for yourself.

Jawgap wrote: »

I think there was a suggestion at one time that '007' and 'James bond' could be aliases - used as a nom de guerre and therefore amenable to slotting anyone into the role!

Nope. Just a fan theory. Before Craig the timeline was for the same Bond played by different actors. Thats why Dalton's Bond references his dead wife, why we see Moore's Bond visit her grave etc.

MagicMarker

Iranoutofideas wrote: »

They did in Skyfall.

So?

Calibos

salmocab wrote: »

Don't like the idea of a black Bond Im a fan of the books and like the movies to be more in the style of the books. Although as long as the invisible car never turns up again I don't mind.

I always smile to myself when someone brings up the invisible car in a Bond thread.

The invisible car was actually one of the most technically feasible bond gadgets of them all and yet everyone seems to think it was the opposite. In that film Q even explains how its done. ie. OLED paint all over the car displaying what an array of small cameras on the opposite side of the car see, effectively making the car transparent.

At the time of the film OLED's were on the drawing board but the technologists had a good idea how the tech would develop and what would be possible. We are half way along that course at this point. We now have OLED TV's but don't yet have the 'inkjet' printable OLED 'paint' or wallpaper.

Its infinitely more feasible than a Rolex watch containing a laser powerful enough to cut through the 75mm thick steel door of a Safe. (Try a room sized Laser apparatus instead)

Yet you never hear anyone scoff at the preposterousness of the Laser watch

Iranoutofideas

MagicMarker wrote: »

So?

So clearly they felt the need. They also keep it true to the established canon of the character.

If you want to throw all that out the window then better off make a different movie because it ain't Bond.

Soft Falling Rain

Skyfall did establish a solid history but there's still away around it. Just let Craig's Bond go out in a blaze of glory, where he dies to save countless.

From that point on the term "Bond" is used as a codename to honour a hero. Such a scenario also plays into protecting the real identity of anyone who takes up such a dangerous mantle.

Agent Coulson

Soft Falling Rain wrote: »

Skyfall did establish a solid history but there's still away around it. Just let Craig's Bond go out in a blaze of glory, where he dies to save countless.

From that point on the term "Bond" is used as a codename to honour a hero. Such a scenario also plays into protecting the real identity of anyone who takes up such a dangerous mantle.

Brosnan suggested that when he wanted one last chance to be Bond.

I thought then and I think now it is a great Idea.

tupac_healy

Soft Falling Rain wrote: »

Skyfall did establish a solid history but there's still away around it. Just let Craig's Bond go out in a blaze of glory, where he dies to save countless.

From that point on the term "Bond" is used as a codename to honour a hero. Such a scenario also plays into protecting the real identity of anyone who takes up such a dangerous mantle.

I couldn't see anyone having the balls to kill off bond! I know with reboots and what not it would not matter....

But still!

Edit, actually I thought Nolan had the nuts to do it with Batman but he cop'd out... Pity as it would have been fitting...

I agree with you it would be a nice way to round off Craig's version but I don't see it

FortuneChip

tupac_healy wrote: »

Edit, actually I thought Nolan had the nuts to do it with Barman but he cop'd out... Pity as it would have been fitting...

The only Barman I remember was TwoFace, and to be fair Nolan did kill him.

Bad joke aside, Ben Affleck is playing Batman and it's not a continuation of Bale's so why should the next Bond have to be a continuation to Craigs? It doesn't need to be a reboot or an origin story either. There's an agent that works for MI6, his name is Bond, he looks like Idris Elba. Boom.

RobbingBandit

On the subject of a black guy playing Bond I would have Chiwetel Ejiofor over Idris Elba just slightly, anyone who have seen him play The Operative in Serenity knows he can act he also has five years on Idris.

expectationlost

main thing against him is age