13 Aug – For years, fans and media have been speculating that Idris Elba will be the next actor to play the much-coveted secret agent role, James Bond, and for years the English actor has been denying it. When interest in the subject sparked again last weekend, after it was reported that producers are looking at tapping Elba as Bond for real, the actor took to Twitter – interestingly – not to outrightly dismiss the claims, but to shake and stir it some more by leaving a cryptic post about it. "my name's Elba, Idris Elba," he posted, along with a heavily filtered photo of his face.
Just when the internet was about to break with the amount of fans either rejoicing or vehemently denying it, he followed up with two back-to-back posts 5 hours later, the first was a picture of the rap group Public Enemy and the second post simply stated, "Don't believe the HYPE..." It was the titular lyrics from the group's famous 1988 song. It was also Elba's way of dismissing the latest rumours regarding his Bond appointment.
The actor has long been rumoured to be the next Bond, and the first Black Bond at that, ever since the 2014 massive Sony hack disclosed emails discussing the possibility of Elba being cast for the role. Fans have largely been supportive of Elba taking on the role, though some do deem the 45-year-old too old for it. Last weekend's reports of Bond producer Barbara Broccoli supposedly telling director Antoine Fuqua that it was time to cast a non-white actor for the role have been quelled by Fuqua's reps, who denied that the conversation has ever taken place, Variety updated recently. In fact, Broccoli and EON are currently more concerned with finding a lead actress and a villain for "Bond 25" rather than thinking of who might be replacing Daniel Craig, especially since he hasn't even begun filming his fifth and most likely final "Bond" movie.