NEED TO KNOW
Idris Elba is throwing his name back into the James Bond casting ring with a little help from his wife Sabrina.
The actor, 53, set TikTok ablaze with the longstanding rumors that he could be the next actor to portray 007 when he shared a video of himself standing among a group of wax figures depicting former Bond stars, including Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig, Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton.
“Wifey made me do it…” Elba wrote in the caption, which he shared alongside the Bond franchise theme song. The video, which he shared on Friday, Dec. 19, has since been viewed more than 6.9 million times.
His wife Sabrina, 36, spoke briefly about the video when she appeared on Good Morning America Monday, Dec. 22 to promote the couple’s skincare brand S’ABLE Labs.
“I have re-fueled the fire, haven’t I?” she said, when the show’s hosts brought up his viral video. “I just thought it would be funny. But look how good he looks in that lineup!”
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When Sabrina was asked by GMA’s Lara Spencer why Bond producers won’t just “get it over with” and announce Elba should play the part, Sabrina respponded, “I agree!”
Elba was in the presence of the Bond wax figures after he was immortalized with a wax figure of himself at Madame Tussauds in London, as the museum announced Dec. 19.
The star has long been considered to be in the mix to step into the 007 role and replace Craig in the follow-up to 2021’s No Time to Die, though he said in a 2023 interview that people who did not want him to play Bond “made the whole thing disgusting and off-putting, because it became about race.”
“It became about nonsense, and I got the brunt of it,” he said at the time.
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Back in June, Amazon MGM Studios announced that Dune director Denis Villeneuve will make the 26th movie in the Bond film series. The movie does not yet have a release date.
A September report by Deadline indicated that Villeneuve, 58, will begin casting for the lead role after he finishes production on Dune: Part Three, as well as that he and the producers of the Bond franchise are looking for a “fresh face” to portray the iconic British spy, citing sources.
