“Bond is so unrealistic, so a hint of reality is good, but let’s not try and make it woke,” Elba told GQ in a new interview about who should take over the role.
He said 007 was “written how he was written for a reason” and that the character’s appeal depends on staying unrealistic. “Don’t try and answer the world’s taste. Just be Bond.”
Elba was long considered a front-runner to replace Daniel Craig, whose 15-year run ended with No Time to Die in 2021. He’s now ruling himself out, and he’s blunt about why.
“I’ve always felt that it’s not a realistic thing,” he said. “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’s spoken before about how ugly the speculation got. On the SmartLess podcast in 2023, he said the racist backlash “made the whole thing disgusting and off-putting” and that he “got the brunt of it.”
The comments land less than a month after Amazon MGM Studios confirmed casting for the next Bond is officially under way, with British casting director Nina Gold (Game of Thrones, The Crown, Hamnet) leading the search.
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