With news that a 24th James Bond film is going to be released in late 2015, fans are now turning their attention to the almighty question whenever a new film is discussed — who will play the villain. It’s very well known that Bond films are judged based on how good the villain is, as the better entries in the franchise have had a memorable villain to supplement all the other aspects of the film. From Goldfinger to Raoul Silva in last year’s Skyfall, the strength of Bond’s adversary tends to determine how highly the film is regarded.

[RELATED: Die Hard Turns 25: Ranking the Best and Worst John McClane Adventures]

The search is only just beginning but one intriguing name that could be kicked around is an actor who many wanted to eventually play Bond. Idris Elba has emerged has a fan favorite to take over the role of 007, but with Daniel Craig returning for at least one more film and possibly another, Elba is out of the running at least in the near future to be Bond.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t try to kill him.

While he would make a very strong Bond, Elba has demonstrated numerous times in the past that his skill could help him play a convincing Bond villain which would have dual meaning to fans following behind the scenes stories.

It could come across as gimmicky to cast the guy who many wanted to play Bond as the character pitted against him, but that would be a serious insult to Elba’s acting talent. He’s proven in his recent role choices that he’s a serious actor willing to take on a wide range of roles which means he could fit comfortably into the role of a villain.

[READ: Pacific Rim is Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes]

The next question would be what kind of villain would Elba play, and given his range of roles he’s taken, casting him as the villain would open a whole different can of worms in terms of what the character could be.

He’s a long shot it seems to play a Bond villain but he’s far from being a lousy choice. Other names will be kicked around like they always are and Elba is hardly the only intriguing name out there, but he’s high on the list. Hopefully Bond producers will recognize that too since they’ve set the bar very high after casting Javier Bardem in Skyfall.

There’s also a chance that Elba could snag a role in the film as part of Bond’s team. We’ve already seen the complete destruction of the previous team Bond operated with and Elba could end up fitting a role on the right side of Bond’s vengeance, a la Colin Salmon’s character who acted as M’s Chief of Staff. It’s been established that the new M, played by Ralph Fiennes, has an action edge to him and Elba could act as an extension to that.

Either way, it’s clear that Elba needs to be in a Bond film in some capacity as even if he’s not getting promoted to Double-O status, he belongs in the new universe that has been created for Bond.