Idris Elba Doesn't Think James Bond Should Be 'Woke'

If you asked me to pinpoint when Idris Elba started being fancast as James Bond, I probably would’ve guessed around 2015 because the conversation feels like a thing that has lasted for at least a decade, but still has a negligible recency to it.

Welp, get ready for some violence: The rumor is old enough to vote.

In a new interview with British GQ, Elba is inevitably asked about Bond thanks to Amazon firing up the casting machine now that both Daniel Craig, and more shockingly, the Broccoli family have left the franchise. Elba will be the first to tell you that he’s obviously too old for the part, and in a surprising amount of candor, he also got very real about why he was never going to be cast.

Turns out, Elba doesn’t think the Bond formula needs to be changed, and frankly, shouldn’t be. (Emphasis mine.)

“It was never legit. It was always just a rumour,” says Elba. It started at the Italian premiere of Quantum of Solace, held a day after the 2008 US presidential election; Daniel Craig said that Barack Obama’s victory suggested we had reached the time for a Black Bond. Elba says fans simply took it and ran with it. “I’ve always felt that it’s not a realistic thing,” he says. “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.” He also believes that changing Bond isn’t really necessary. “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.”

That sonic boom you just heard was our comment section clutching its pearls.

I’m just some white guy in Nowheresville, Pennsylvania. Idris Elba has more cool and showbiz knowledge in his pinky than 100 clones of me stacked together. We can all sit here and say, “No, you must be the first Black James Bond because The Wire was freaking awesome,” but at the end of the day, Idris Elba, or whoever, is the one who has to go out there and sell this thing. It’s not our neck on the line.

I’m going to give Elba the benefit of the doubt that he’s thought about this topic longer than anyone because, apparently, this rumor has been circulating since Obama beat John McCain. We’re talking the ancient times when Meghan was still hanging out with Tila Tequila and Kim Kardashian was Paris Hilton’s assistant who somehow got a reality show. (I should be a history teacher, I know.)