{"id":244954,"date":"2026-06-08T13:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/08\/sir-idris-elba-dismisses-james-bond-speculation-007-shouldnt-be-woke\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T13:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:00:16","slug":"sir-idris-elba-dismisses-james-bond-speculation-007-shouldnt-be-woke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/08\/sir-idris-elba-dismisses-james-bond-speculation-007-shouldnt-be-woke\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Idris Elba dismisses James Bond speculation: 007 shouldn&#8217;t be &#8216;woke&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2026-06-08\" datetime=\"1780923616\" pubdate=\"\">8 June 2026<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p>Sir Idris Elba doesn&#8217;t think James Bond should be &#8220;woke&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">Sir Idris Elba doens&#8217;t think speculation he would play James Bond was &#8216;legit&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The 53-year-old actor was tipped to take over as the suave spy following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/daniel-craig\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,daniel-craig\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Daniel Craig<\/a>&#8216;s exit in 2021&#8217;s Spectre, but he has insisted the rumours were &#8220;never legit&#8221; because global audiences wouldn&#8217;t accept a Black man playing the role and he doesn&#8217;t think the character should be forced to change because of political correctness.<\/p>\n<p>He told Britain&#8217;s GQ magazine:\u201cIt was never legit. It was always just a rumour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always felt that it\u2019s not a realistic thing. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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\u2019t go for that. Bond is big all over the world. And [audiences] won\u2019t [all] go for a Black male, an African male, playing Bond. That\u2019s not what they like in their culture. Period.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cBond is so unrealistic, so a hint of reality is good, but let\u2019s not try and make it woke.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cI think you\u2019ve got to be pure to what it is: escapism. Don\u2019t try and answer the world\u2019s taste. Just be Bond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nIdris can currently be seen playing Man-At-Arms in Masters of the Universe and was initially &#8220;a bit conscious&#8221; that he doesn&#8217;t look anything like the usually-ginger character, but ultimately realised it didn&#8217;t matter.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe laughed: \u201cTalk about recasting. I was a bit conscious about it. But then I was like, What are you talking about?! Man-At-Arms could be any colour! He\u2019s got green legs, for God\u2019s sake!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nIdris accepted the role simply because of his love of He-Man and wasn&#8217;t worried about the trajectory of his career.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe admitted: \u201cI did that for me, man. I remember taking it, thinking, Uhhhh\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cI suppose at my age, with the kind of things I\u2019ve done, and the kind of things I\u2019m doing, can I get away with being in a film like that? I thought, F*** it, why not?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Luther star directed 2018 crime drama Yardie and is at the helm of an upcoming adaptation of This Is How it Goes, and he admitted directing has given him a new wave of inspiration in his career.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe said: \u201cIf directing wasn\u2019t an option for me, I\u2019m not sure how long I\u2019d be acting.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cI want to be inspired again. I think the inspiration comes from watching other actors and moulding and getting people to say it differently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/sir-idris-elba-dismisses-james-bond-speculation-007-woke-1445646.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>8 June 2026 Sir Idris Elba doesn&#8217;t think James Bond should be &#8220;woke&#8221;. Sir Idris Elba doens&#8217;t think speculation he would play James Bond was &#8216;legit&#8217; The 53-year-old actor was tipped to take over as the suave spy following Daniel Craig&#8216;s exit in 2021&#8217;s Spectre, but he has insisted the rumours were &#8220;never legit&#8221; because [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1177,13357],"class_list":{"0":"post-244954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-daniel-craig","9":"tag-sir-idris-elba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}