Idris Elba is beyond tired of 'James Bond' casting rumors, so please stop asking him about it

Elba, Idris Elba, is pretty sick and tired of people asking him if he's going to be playing the next James Bond. During a recent appearance on the Jemele Hill Is Unbothered podcast, the actor plainly stated that he has "no more answers" with regards to a casting rumor that's been around for close to two decades.

"I just tell people, 'Aw, don't ask me that.' Because a lot of times it's really lazy journalism," Elba said (via Comic Book Resources). "And people try to use it as clickbait like, 'What's he gonna say this time?' I try to say the same things. Every now and then I just tease them, but every now and then I'll give them some philosophy on why I don't want to do it or why it's a rumor. But most times now I tend not to talk about it."

The most recent era of 007 headlined by Daniel Craig closed out last year with the release of No Time to Die, which brought in over $770 million worldwide. Speaking with Deadline back in June of this year, longtime Bond franchise producer Barbara Broccoli revealed that no one has been seriously considered to replace Craig just yet. 

“Nobody’s in the running,” she explained. “We’re working out where to go with him, we’re talking that through. There isn’t a script and we can’t come up with one until we decide how we’re going to approach the next film because, really, it’s a reinvention of Bond. We’re reinventing who he is and that takes time. I’d say that filming is at least two years away.”

Elba can currently be seen in Beast, where he goes head-to-head with a massive lion hellbent on avenging the death of its pride. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Everest, Adrift), the film also stars Iyana Halley (This Is Us), Leah Jeffries (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), and Sharlto Copley (District 9).

"I think 'Beast' does refer to the massive pot of ingredients of all these themes that are thrown in," Elba told SYFY WIRE ahead of the movie's theatrical bow this past weekend. "Calling the lion a beast is to evoke something into the audience. But when you watch the film, it's a bit more than that. The human being becomes the beast in some instances. The poaching and that becomes beast-like to what it does to the natural environment of the animals. What mourning does when someone dies and how you deal with that in your family, that becomes like a beast, the way it attacks the family structure. Yeah. I think there is symbolism in the word."

Beast is now playing in theaters everywhere.