Idris Elba
Age: 43
From: London, England
Last film: “Beasts of No Nation”
Not only is Idris Elba the James Bond we need, he’s the James Bond we deserve. In a pop culture universe as diverse and fractured as today’s, Elba is the natural choice for the leading role in a series that, for too long, has been bogged down by foolishness and fantasy. Nothing in Ian Fleming’s outline for James Bond says he always has to be a white Anglo-Saxon. Not only would Elba spice up the canon by adding some much-needed diversity, it would serve as partial redemption for a movie series guilty of insulting pretty much every race and ethnicity in the world.
Elba’s potential casting has raised some rather idiotic doubts from people like James Bond author Anthony Horowitz, who cited Elba’s alleged “streetness” and “roughness” as potential drawbacks. Ignoring those comments’ racist underpinnings, British viewers have similar reservations because they connect Elba to his prone-to-anger police captain John Luther in the BBC television hit “Luther.” Such doubts are the stuff of nonsense. Elba is first and foremost an “actor”: someone who can accustom himself to the demands of his character.
Additionally, Elba’s ability to play cool but psychologically tormented men should make him a shoo-in for the role of Bond. Bond himself, as portrayed by Daniel Craig, has a few skeletons in the closet. It would only be natural for Elba to continue where Craig left off.
Let’s be honest: If the hesitance to cast Elba is because the Broccolis — the family that owns the Bond film rights — don’t want Bond’s color to distract the more seasoned 007 fans, they can forget it. At this point in the series, blind fidelity to the rules of Bond isn’t what draws viewers to theaters. And if someone as buffoonish as Roger Moore could play 007 for 13 years without raising complaints, isn’t it fair to grant Elba serious consideration?
James Bond will always and forever be an escapist series: guns-and-gals flicks that sate our appetites for mindless action in the most devilishly seductive manner. So if the Broccoli estate is willing to continue delivering the fantasy, can’t they at least give modern audiences a little of their own reality in Bond?
Contact Carlos Valladares at cvall96 ‘at’ stanford.edu.