Yes, it does matter if Bond is black or white (Picture: Rex/Columbia Pictures)

Should a black actor be the next James Bond? Does it matter if his character is white or black?

Those are the questions that have been on everyone’s lips ever since the Sony leaks revealed producers were interested in getting Idris Elba to play 007 – and opinion has been extremely divided.

Don’t get me wrong, someone like Idris Elba has the talent, looks and charm to play the world’s most iconic spy. I can totally understand why so many people would love to see him or another black actor suited and booted, wooing the ladies and saving the world in style. But the fact he is a black man means he simply isn’t suited for this particular role.

Idris Elba seems to be the people’s choice for the next James Bond (Picture: WireImage)

The character of James Bond was created back in 1953 by Ian Fleming with a very clear description and back story. Fleming described his character as a Scottish man in interviews and his parentage was made pretty clear in the 1964 book You Only Live Twice, where his mother was revealed to be Swiss and his father was Scottish: a Highlander from near Glencoe.




Fleming himself has Scottish roots and spent a lot of his childhood in Glencoe and we saw how important Bond’s history is in the latest films Skyfall and Spectre. Plus Fleming used many of his own interests to shape Bond. His love of scrambled eggs, golf and gambling all come from Fleming’s own tastes and Bond uses the same toiletries and cigarettes Fleming loved.

Small details like this that helped to shape the spy we know today make it harder to understand how that can suddenly change in order to allow a black man to play the part.

While a character like Doctor Who has the power to regenerate into a completely different person, Bond is meant to be a normal man. Yes, I know we’ve already let go of some of the realism attached to the story by having different actors portraying him over the years but changing his ethnicity won’t work without having to start tweaking important parts of the character and his story.

Daniel Craig is currently still playing 007 (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

Idris himself has made it clear on several occasions that he’s not a fan of the idea the role should be given to a black actor just because of their ethnicity. Back in 2011, he told NPR: ‘I just don’t want to be the black James Bond. Sean Connery wasn’t the Scottish James Bond, and Daniel Craig wasn’t the blue-eyed James Bond, so If I played him, I don’t want to be called the black James Bond.’

A recent interview with Variety revealed he still feels the same way about it as he said: ‘It’s interesting that the James Bond thing continues to go. I think it’s more about “we just want to have a black guy play James Bond” rather than “Idris Elba, the actor, play James Bond”. That’s the part that I’m like “ugh, come on”.’

Idris has suggested if changes are to be made then Bond might as well become a black woman or just a female in general. But I feel that means like we’ll be moving away from the core of the character and the story and creating something that has less and less to do with the original Bond.

Sean Connery was the first ever James Bond.(Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

Should Disney’s next live action remake be a film where Snow White is actually brown? Would it work if we rebooted the Rocky franchise and made him a woman? A change like that would have to tell a very different story.



Instead of having to make changes and tweak key aspects of Bond’s story and history in order to cast a black man in the role, studios should spend their money on creating a new franchise that will give Idris and other ethnic actors the chance to become their own sort of Bond. A spy who has skills, charm and personality shaped by their upbringing as an ethnic person.

Yaphet Kotto, who played the first black Bond villain Dr Kananga in 1973’s Live and Let Die, argued this case when he told Big Issue: ‘[Bond] cannot be black. James Bond was established by Ian Fleming as a white character, played by white actors. Play 003 or 006 but you cannot be 007.’

Moviegoers aren’t opposed to getting to know new spies in new franchises, the Jason Bourne and Kingsman films have proved that much. We don’t need to waste time getting Idris to become a weird shell of character in order to enjoy seeing him in that type of role.

Leave Bond to be the white man he was always created to be and instead let’s get the ball rolling for Idris Elba to carry his own series of spy films.

As fun as it would be to hear Idris order a Vodka martini, the spy I can imagine him playing would probably order a Jim Beam, neat.

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