Idris Elba is ‘part of the conversation’ to be the next James Bond, says producer Barbara Broccoli.
Broccoli, who has overseen the Bond movies since the death of her father Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli in 1996, has revealed she has been considering Elba for the secret agent role.
Speaking to Deadline, she said: “We know Idris. We’re friends with him and he’s a magnificent actor. It’s been part of the conversation.”
Broccoli added that it was not easy to think who could be the next Bond while Daniel Craig was still in the role: “It’s always difficult to have the conversation when you have someone in the seat.”
The Luther star has been linked with taking over from Craig for a number of years and has commented on the speculation himself: “Of course, if someone said to me, ‘Do you want to play James Bond?’ I’d be like, ‘Yeah.’ That’s fascinating to me. But it’s not something I’ve expressed, like, ‘Yeah, I wanna be the Black James Bond’.”
Last year’s No Time to Die was Craig’s fifth and final outing as Bond after first taking on the character in 2006’s Casino Royale.
His first post-Bond film is set to be Knives Out 2 where he will reprise the role of Detective Benoit Blanc alongside an all-star cast that includes Dave Bautista, Edward Norton, Jessica Henwick and Kate Hudson.
Elba is currently in production on the film adaptation of detective series Luther for Netflix.
