His name is Idris Elba, but will he be first black Bond?

@Ike-in-Tokyo,

Gay Bond is a great idea! But if Idris Elba plays gay 007 the LGBTQ community will flounce and pout cuz Idris isnt gay. They want a gay actor, naturally.

You can't use Nick Fury as an example. Sure, the original character was white, but in 2001, the Marvel Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury was created based off of Samuel Jackson, long before the films came out. It is the reason Samuel Jackson was cast to play him.

https://comicvine.gamespot.com/images/1300-2406998

https://www.cinemablend.com/new/How-Nick-Fury-Ended-Up-Looking-Like-Being-Played-By-Samuel-L-Jackson-71136.html

With all the random universes in Marvel comics, anything can happen and still work. Just like making Doctor Who a woman. It's been established that the character randomly changes so anything can happen. As far as we know, James Bond is still the same person throughout the films.

If they want this to work, maybe they should finally admit to the fan theory that James Bond is just an alias they give to their top spy before they change his race. I still wouldn't be a big fan of the idea but at least it wouldn't be just 'hey look, I'm black now, get over it'. There is one more Craig Bond film coming isn't there?

Nick Fury was in the comics white, now played by Samuel Jackson or are you saying, Jackson sucks? Personally, I think Jackson is way better than the comic book version.

Yeah, Fury in the comics was never a particularly interesting character and Jackson changed all that.

With Bond, like Fury, it's pretty much a blank slate. Literally anyone can play him - from the rugged charm of Connery, the comic suaveness of Moore to the brute coldness of Craig etc.

Great actor and all that, but Bond is white! 

Bond is also a fictional character, therefore it really doesn't matter what color he is. Nick Fury was in the comics white, now played by Samuel Jackson or are you saying, Jackson sucks? Personally, I think Jackson is way better than the comic book version.

Why not have another spy role like 008 or 005?

Maybe a cameo appearance.

Im sure the usual leftist trolls will abhore me for daring to be proud of the heritage behind the character.

Again, it's a fictional charactor, what's wrong with having a Black, Asian or Muslim Bond or even a woman? The character, what happen if they were to make Bond an American or German character? Just give Elba a chance, the man is good that should be the main requirement.

theFritzX

Ike-in--Tokyo, yes, a gay Bond!

but hes still the love em and leave em 007 we all know.

I can see scenes like this: 

An annoyed Bond boy fuming, "...and he didnt even have the decency to give me a reach-around!"

Co-starring Harvey Weinstein as Goldfinger.

”For a golden boy knows when he's kissed him it the kiss of death from…”

It’ll drive closeted homophobes nuts!

Ike-in--Tokyo, yes, a gay Bond!

but hes still the love em and leave em 007 we all know.

I can see scenes like this:

An annoyed Bond boy fuming, "...and he didnt even have the decency to give me a reach-around!"

@strangerland, it doesnt make sense to YOU - thats something else entirely.

Of course it is, seeing as I can see how the comparison of a work of art that has been completed is not equivalent to something that is consistently being re-created and evolving through multiple releases.

So yeah, it doesn't make sense to me, but I can understand that it made sense to you or you wouldn't have made the apples to oranges comparison in the first place.

Where you seem to be mistaken is that because you have an inability to see how your analogy didn't make sense you think that no one else can see it either.

The next Bond should be gay. It’d really open up Hollywood to more gay actors - just think of the new line of “Bond Boys”!

@strangerland, it doesnt make sense to YOU - thats something else entirely.

lets add some new touches to the Mona Lisa too.

Um, there is only one Mona Lisa. It's a completed item, that doesn't have sequels, nor room to evolve, since it's already completed.

How about you pick an example that actually makes sense?

Being british is not a necessary criteria for an actor to play Bond.

Ken Watanabe would be a perfect James Bond. I am shocked he is not being mentioned. Can play a Suave, handsome and risk taker character. If there can be a Black one there can be a Japanese Bond too!

He's not British, and more importantly cannot do a British accent. Also he is about 20 years too old.

Hecould play a character though. Bond needs to be set in Japan again.

I still say that the next Bond should be Vinnie Jones.

Ahso, But Idris Elba isnt 37.

Great actor and all that, but Bond is white!

Bond is also 102 years old, but they keep getting his she wrong! He was 37 in 1953. If they can change his age they can change his skin colour.

Of course he was white at the time - there were no other races in Britain at the time. But a 37-year old today would have been born in 1981 and Bond moves with the times. There is no reason why an MI6 officer today would not be black - many are.

@Toastedheretic,

just to be clear. I have absolutely no problem with actors of different nationalities, ethnicities, religeons, sexual orientation, politicsl beliefs,etc etc playing charracters that differ from themselves.

I dont care that pierce brosnan is irish, george lazenby is australian, morgan freeman isnt south african ( when he played nelson mandela), daniel day-lewis isnt handicapped (my left foot), etc.

Bond is white and british - I dont care who plays him. If they want to put makeup or prosthetics on Idris Elba to make it possible for him to play 007 as conceived by the author Im absolutely fine with that.

Just as if they want to do the same for an asian or white guy - or transexual actor for that matter - to play John Shaft.

I think that was more to do with the script and condensing the series down into one film, than the color of Roland's skin.

As someone who read the entire series over 20+ years, I had problems with it from the moment they announced Elba as Roland. Long before we knew the problems with the rest of the movie, as did many fans of the series.

It was made very clear what the gunslinger looked like in the novels, including a painting of him on at least one of the covers. We both know that he had nothing in common with Elba, not to mention if the movie had actually been successful and spawned sequels, it would have completely ruined a very important relationship dynamic between the gunslinger and a major black character in the series. It was just a bad decision all the way around.

Really, why do you like to throw in these subtle (you think) pieces of ad hom and disinformation?

Subtle like

Next Bond must be japanese!

Yeah, lets add some new touches to the Mona Lisa too. Leonardo didnt have much contact with Africans.

Yeah, real subtle.

Elba is British, Brosnan is Irish. How come you have a problem with the former but not the latter?

@Toasted heretic,

who (except you) said anything about being 'incensed'? We're having a discussion here. Really, why do you like to throw in these subtle (you think) pieces of ad hom and disinformation?

Yeah, lets add some new touches to the Mona Lisa too. Leonardo didnt have much contact with Africans. Im sure he wouldnt mind you rectifying things.

Strawmen aside, is it really that terrifying to have a British actor playing a British agent?

Presumably you were equally incensed when Pierce Brosnan, the Irish actor, got the role?

"Evolve". Yeah, lets add some new touches to the Mona Lisa too. Leonardo didnt have much contact with Africans. Im sure he wouldnt mind you rectifying things.

But dont let the truth get in the way.

Who's letting it get in the way? That's some interesting history as to where Bond came from. And I'm not surprised that Fleming didn't know (m)any black intelligence officers, I'd suspect there probably were not that many at the time.

But it's been a long time since Fleming wrote Bond, the character has evolved, and black intelligence officers are a plausible, if not real thing in this day and age. He seems like an appropriate actor to play the characters required to be Bond, and other than having what some people consider the wrong skin color, he seems as appropriate an actor to play Bond as any.

Things are allowed to evolve. Just ask Steamboat Willie.

Not that it will make any difference to the relentlessy "progressives", but Ian Fleming based Bond on a composite of people he had known in the intelligence field (none of whom were black) and his own brother. Fleming stated that he envisaged Bond as physically resembling Hoagy Carmichael.

But dont let the truth get in the way.

James Bond is about as black as The Gunslinger in The Dark Tower novels, and look how that turned out.

I think that was more to do with the script and condensing the series down into one film, than the color of Roland's skin.

BelrickAug. 13  09:50 am JST

Great actor and all that, but Bond is white!

Why not have another spy role like 008 or 005?

Im sure the usual leftist trolls will abhore me for daring to be proud of the heritage behind the character.

'Heritage' is used to refer to a person's cultural traditions. Bond has no cultural traditions, and even if he had any, there is no reason to think Idris Elba couldn't play a black Bond raised with those same traditions. After all, black people are just as capable of being British as anyone else.

What you mean is race. You are proud of the race of a fictional character. But not proud enough that you don't feel the need to encode that pride in misleading language, apparently.

@GanbarreJapan!

I agree. Next Bond must be japanese!

Idris Elba is a great actor. I would love to see him as a big budget suave superspy. But not as James Bond. James Bond is about as black as The Gunslinger in The Dark Tower novels, and look how that turned out.

Make a new character for Elba to fill the shoes of. There is no reason to change the race of an established character. Look at Sulu in the new Star Trek films suddenly being gay after the character had been established as heterosexual. Even George Takei spoke out about that being a bad idea.

Hollywood, start making new characters. Changing old existing characters just for the sake of changing them does a disservice to the character and the actor playing them.

@ Ah so

But an east Asian James Bond is still many years away.

Ken Watanabe would be a perfect James Bond. I am shocked he is not being mentioned. Can play a Suave, handsome and risk taker character. If there can be a Black one there can be a Japanese Bond too!

I always wanted Michael Caine to play Bond.

Yeah but Harry Palmer was the anti-Bond back in the 60s. Wouldn't have made sense for MC to do Bond, imho.

Update: now confirmed that the alleged Fuqua-Brocolli meeting never took place and this rumor has no truth to it.

I don't think it would work for such an iconic character as Bond. It would be like making Superman, Charlie Brown or even Santa Claus black. It would be a great action movie, no doubt, but to me, at least, it would not feel like a James Bond movie, just another action film like Jason Bourne, Jack Reacher etc.

Having said that, after two or three movies as Bond, audiences might accept Elba. But then when he's had enough, who follows hi? Another black actor or do they go back to white?

@Belrick, I'm not familar with Black Panther other than from the movie trailers, but I think the point is that whiteness is not one of Bond's defining characteristics. British-ness is (though even that has already arguably been stretched with an Irish actor); womanizing is; killing bad guys is; enjoying a martini and gambling is. A black Bond can be all of those things, without disturbing any of Bond's foundations.

I'd be far more upset if he was played by a white American as a peace-loving, no-risk-taking, asexual consensus builder.

And if a white actor is chosen as the namesake character in future releases of Black Panther, how many would be in uproar then?

The Stath.  Or a nice female Jemima Bond.  Why not?  She could be trans so as to allow the continuation of the "Bond Girl"  Matt Damon?  Chris Hemsworth?  Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn - since Bond went broody they are just like any other action movie.

If I remember rightly, the James Bond character was orphaned at 11 and went to boarding school. I don't recall his whiteness ever being referenced in the books (though admittedly I read them a VERY long time ago).

Given when they were written, it was perfectly reasonable to assume that Fleming had a white man in mind. However, the movies are not set in the 1950s or 1960s, they are set very firmly in the 21st century. I can't think of any reason why he couldn't be a black or asian british character, as long as the character has the fundamental attributes.

I, for one, am going to channel my impotent rage into being disgusted that leftist pc warriors would consider replacing one completely fictional character with another completely fictional character.

It makes my blood boil.

We should not respect our past and traditions, rather destroy and mock them.

Yes, we should destroy them. Bond was written in the Fifties and Sixties, and shown onscreen from the Sixties onwards, when the British Govt. supported apartheid, when it was legal to rape your wife, when women were not allowed to lead prayer in the CofE, when single mothers were locked away and had their babies taken from them, when people with illnesses and disabilities were sterilised without their knowledge, when racism, sexism, homophobia, and all kinds of bigotry meant these minorities could be lampooned, fired, abused, beaten up, and killed. Including people like Idris Elba.

Our 'traditions' are messed up, and deserve mocking and destruction. And if you want your viewing entertainment to be set in a vacuum like that, then go for it.

I am looking forward to the new Bond. I shall be decidedly stirred.

@Toasted Heretic

I just think it should be more of a panto. Silly gadgets used to escape near-death situations, Roger Moore breathing in to flatten the gut etc - great fun. Given the fact this is one of the best known characters in films, there is so much room for parody and pokes in the eye. Churning out a brooding, thoughtful Bond...yawn.

I always wanted Michael Caine to play Bond.

Never seen him act and the last Bond movie I saw was View to a Kill.

Check his performance as Stringer Bell in The Wire. That's when his career really took off.

Apart from the magnificent Christopher Walken and Grace Jones, View to a Kill was well ropey. Timothy Dalton did an admirable job as a more gruff and brutal Bond (foreshadowing Craig) but the series didn't pick up until Brosnan took over. Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of PB and was intrigued when DC took over the role.

If you want to fill in your post Moore 007 Bond movies before you see Idris in the role, this is my subjective list of the ones that are worth watching:

License to Kill

Goldeneye

Casino Royale

Skyfall

Oddly enough, my favorite Bond movie is On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It has the best score, the best Blofeldt, Dianna Rig and the most downbeat ending. Even Lazenby isn't all bad in it...

Never seen him act and the last Bond movie I saw was View to a Kill.

Just make sure the Bond girl is white to really wind the racists up if Bond girls are still acceptable. Even better, make it a Bond guy to annoy the racists and the homophobes.

I always preferred Roger Moore as Bond. It’s a pantomime and he played it as such.

These films should be funny and a sly dig at the progressive and the reactionary crowds.

James Bond being a fictional character, he doesn't have to be white. And characters do change over time, JB certainly bulked up (Craig vs Connery/Niven).

Couldn't care less whether Lassie's a German shepherd or a rough collie or if the next Tintin's played by a non-Belgian.

How about a NON-White FEMALE Bond?

It's going to happen, I'd put money on it. And he'll be the suavest Bond since Connery.

I won't be satisfied until Tom Hanks play Nelson Mandela, and a black, dwarf tranny plays James Bond.

The word is transgender, thanks.

We should not respect our past and traditions, rather destroy and mock them.

I'm not sure what you mean here. What traditions? British? If you mean we should not respect past traditions like condemning the Irish to a genocidal famine, killing women by fire or water, the slave trade and so on - am all for it.

I think it's healthy to mock tradition. Otherwise there's no forward motion. Not sure how Bond is being destroyed, mind. He's been played by an Irish actor - and Bond is British. If anything, Idris is more qualified to play 007 - being British and all.

the heritage behind the character.

What is the heritage of the character? (I've never read the books). Is he Scottish? Is he English? Did you object to Sean Connery for being the "wrong proud heritage" or to Daniel Craig? and what about the (yikes!!) Irish Brosnan? Was that where you drew the line?

Great actor and all that, but Bond is white!

Why not have another spy role like 008 or 005?

Im sure the usual leftist trolls will abhore me for daring to be proud of the heritage behind the character.

Bond should remain British, but, if the right actor is available (and Idris Elba is perfect for the role), there's no reason a smoking hot, debonair, pensive yet fit Brit of Chinese, Vietnamese, or Incian ethnic heritage couldn't fill the role. (Preferably with a Scottish accent, but I'm not going to be fussy on that point).

Idris will bring the women into the theatres. In droves.

Maybe a Vietnamese one?

@Ah_so

But an east Asian James Bond is still many years away.

Do you really want to see a Chinese James Bond?

I don't.

Great actor, wish him nothing but the best. I think it's a cool idea, should be interesting to see what others around the world think, if ticket sales are through the roof then we really reached a level where people are accepting of traditional roles being played by minorities, if not, then we have a long, long way to go.

I think it's a certainty. But an east Asian James Bond is still many years away.

@Maria, I agree. I hope it will happen.

Idris Elba is a fine actor, and can portray a tough guy, a killer, a thoughtful person, an emotional wreck, a damaged soul, and a funny fellow. He would (will?) make a great Bond.

The show should really explain the Dr Who-esque regeneration of Bonds. 

Could easily just say the name is a part of the identity given along with he 00 status. Wouldn’t make sense for a spy/assassin to go around using their real name

The show should really explain the Dr Who-esque regeneration of Bonds. No one in character seems to notice the change from Sean Connery to Roger Moore to Pierce Brosnan, etc.