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complete rumor.
Bond is not black.. Let's make Harry Potter and lord of the rings black too and oh let's make a white mlk movie too.. The stupidity of people ...
In my personal opinion, MP is not black either, or at least not black with a Caribbean accent. That's another topic however.
You compared a black actor playing James Bond (a fictional character who's changing and evolving is part of what's kept him going for over 50 years) to a white actor playing MLK (a real person and civil rights leader, an iconic figure who played a huge role in gaining equality for black people in America), and you actually have the audacity to call other people stupid. I've always thought the white shaft comparison was dumb (as Shaft is defined by his race, in a way that the modern James Bond of the Craig years, so not Fleming's or Connery's Bond, isn't, because it's possible for a black guy now to come from the same background as Bond while it wasn't really plausible when the early films were made) but this one is even more stupid.
Personally I don't care either way, but I understand and the respect the opinions of most of those who don't want a black Bond. I say most, not all, because some people, as @CASINOROYALE has nicely proven for me, are just ignorant idiots and their opinion on the subject means nothing really.
She was once White with a Canadian accent...
More seriously, I always thought the new MP looks like a Black Lois Maxwell. regarding Elba, all race considerations aside, it is his arrogant attitude that in the end really made me hostile to him playing Bond. That and his frame, which is more akin to Bruce Willis or Stallone than Sean Connery in his prime.
Daniel Craig is buffer than Idris Elba and Bruce Willis (sure in the old Die Hard films you can see that he has a very impressive physique but he's never been a huge guy because unlike Stallone and Arnold, his appeal comes from playing everyman heroes).
James Bond is not a real person. He's a fictional character who has been played by a diverse range of actors who really have very little in common. It all comes down to the actor's interpretation of the character; film is an artistic medium, Bond films never truly strive for realism, as long as the film does as it intends and says what it needs to, the actual race of the actor playing a character is superfluous.
In none of the Daniel Craig films has it been a particularly integral factor that Bond was a white male. A black actor could easily have stepped in back in 2006 and it would have made no impact of the narrative, plot or quality of the films.
I've not really seen Idris in anything, but if you ask me, the guy looks like James Bond. I'd happily take him in the role. It's time for a new Bond after SP.
I summed up on the previous page why I don't think he can do Bond (and it's not only about his age, but rather his potential marketability as Bond that's the issue - particularly globally). He's the closest any black actor has come to playing Bond and he is the most credible.......but not credible enough. The hurdle is higher to jump. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. There's a global audience to please and not everyone sees the world the way we do.
I do have a problem with Harris as MP though. I can't stand the Caribbean accent for someone working for M, especially after Lois. She should have taken lessons to expunge it or not accepted the part. That's just a personal grievance/hangup I have....I realize it's not rational.
As I said, I have a hang up about her. There's nothing that can be done to change it except get rid of her from my point of view.
The only actor mentioned on that list that even remotely appeals to me to take on the Bond role after Daniel Craig would be Dan Stevens. At 33 he's certainly the right age to play OO7 after DC has finished with the role. He's got a Bondian look, maybe darken his hair slightly. Whilst not an obvious choice, I think he could play the role. He's not a bad actor. I don't think we have to worry for a while...maybe...possibly.
Great future 007. :)
The bits in bold, I think are the main points, thanks @Pierce2Daniel.
Something else I'll add, I also don't understand why some people claim they don't want a black Bond because Fleming's Bond was white but then heap praise on Moore and Brosnan, two interpretations which shared nothing in common with Fleming's Bond. Even Dalton, heralded by many as the closest to the books, is much more ruthless, cold blooded and rebellious (Fleming's Bond wouldn't go rogue, even when Tracy was killed he didn't) than Fleming's Bond ever was (Dalton is my favourite Bond, but I think Lazenby js tbe closest to Fleming's character).
My point being that film Bond and novel Bond have always been two very different mediums. If you're a Fleming purist then fine, but don't say you want a white Bond because that's what Fleming intended and then say Moore was great, or the Brosnan bashing has to stop, or you want more quips and gadgets.
Idris is a good actor and I agree he looks the part, and would have been a great choice for CR if Craig had passed on it, but I think if not his age, then his attitude towards it have pretty much disqualified him at this point.
I don't think that'd work. If the franchise was similar to Bond, it'd be met with hostility from Bond fans (look at Kingsman, the marketing mentioned Bond and we already had people refusing to see it because of that, yourself included) and accused of being a cheap rip off with the only difference being the protagonists skin colour. If the new franchise was not similar to Bond, then that's not really the same as having a black Bond at all because it's not even a remotely similar character, so it wouldn't stop people suggesting black actors for the role.
Nobody would say "why can't Idris Elba play *new black rival spy franchise character* instead of making Bond black?", unless that character was similar to Bond. And if it was similar to Bond, it'd be met with hostility and accused of being a cheap rip off and a shadow of the real thing.
It's actually more likely than not, given all the Spy movies coming out these days.
As I said before, the issue will be commercial viability on a global scale. There are very few black actors who can guarantee a franchise. Will Smith is probably the only one out there now. Wesley Snipes and Eddie Murphy were the others in the past (not any more). Elba is an excellent actor, but I don't know if he's that marketable commercially.
Is he? Both Willis and Elba always appeared to be as brutish. Sure, Bruce Willis is not as big as Stallone and looks far more everyman, but there is something more working class and brutish about Willis. Idris Elba is pretty much of the same mold IMO. Colin Salmon looked far more like Bond IMO.
But Idris Elba won't be Bond because 1)he is too old and 2)he behaved with such arrogance regarding the rumor and in an unprofessional manner. Blaming Daniel Craig for the rumor I thought was particularly crass.
And for the record, I admired him a lot for his role of Stringer Bell. I still think he is a great actor, I even advocated for him to play the role of the villain when Chiwetel Ejiofor was rumored to be in SP.