Idris Elba is keeping tight-lipped! The British actor shared cryptic tweets on Sunday, August 12, amid rumors that he may be cast as the next James Bond.
The star, 45, initially tweeted “my name’s Elba, Idris Elba,” clearly referencing Bond’s famous line. Later, however, he kept fans guessing when he added: “Don’t believe the HYPE…”
It’s been speculated for quite some time that Elba may follow in the footsteps of Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. In January, he opened up about the franchise in an interview with Variety.
“There’s no such thing as a ‘black Bond.’ Are we interested in having a Bond character other than being a male?” he said at the time. “Could be a woman, could be a black woman, could be a white woman, but I think, that character, everybody would like to see it have—do something different with it, why not?”
Craig, meanwhile, hasn’t stepped down from the famous role just yet. In May, it was confirmed that the 50-year-old would star in the 25th movie of the franchise, which would be his fifth time. He previously played the MI6 agent in Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015).
It took some time for Craig to decide on portraying Bond again, though. “I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists,” he told Time Out magazine in October 2015. “No, not at the moment. Not at all. That’s fine. I’m over it at the moment. We’re done. All I want to do is move on.”
