Idris Elba: Make Bond a woman

THE next 007 should be a woman, to do ‘something different’ with the role, Idris Elba has said.

The 45- year- old actor denied being interested in playing James Bond, claiming he is too old and ‘it’s more about, “we just want to have a black guy play James Bond”, rather than “Idris Elba, the actor, play James Bond”’.

Ian Fleming’s character has always been played by white men, most recently Daniel Craig. His next Bond film, believed to be his last, is due in November 2019.

McMafia star James Norton is the bookies’ favourite to take over the character, closely followed by Tom Hardy.

But Elba, pictured, told the Sundance Film Festival: ‘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 … do something different with it – why not?’