While being linked with the top 007 job can’t be a particularly bad feeling, it seems Idris Elba is sick of talking about the ongoing speculation that he's being lined up as the next James Bond. About four years ago he said Idris Elba would be a great Bond and then it started to creep," he said.  With Daniel Craig recently expressing uncertainty about his future as James Bond, someone close to the franchise has offered his two cents on who could step into the iconic role next — or, rather, who shouldn't. Because films and TV affect culture, a black Bond would be a cultural event ... a statement ... beyond just entertainment.” 
 
 We may still be a ways from having a black Bond on-screen—Elba has repeatedly emphasized that it’s all just rumors, and at 42 he’s already a little old to take on the role, especially with Daniel Craig still likely to play Bond two more times. He suggests Adrian Lester, known for his theater work and starring role in the BBC's Hustle, as a better potential Bond, though Horowitz gives no reason why Lester could do better than Elba. When that same "grit" applies to Elba, however, it's rejected with casually racist generalizations like "street" and "rough," two descriptors Horowitz likely associates with Elba from the actor's acclaimed performances in The Wire and American Gangster. It’s not a colour issue.  Update: 
 
 Horowitz has apologized, is “mortified.” 
 
 Original post: 
 
 Dear Anthony Horowitz, 
 
 We read your interview with The Daily Mail in which you claimed certified Adonis Idris Elba was “too street” to take on the role of James Bond in film. We hate to break it to him, but no one personifies suave more than Idris. Yeah.’ 
 
 Horowitz can be this frank because the films are owned by Eon Productions and are nothing to do with his employers at the Fleming estate, which controls the rights to the books. Oyelowo, like most audio book narrators, will voice multiple characters, but still tells The Guardian, “I am officially the only person on planet Earth who can legitimately say: ‘I am the new James Bond’ – even saying that name is the cinematic equivalent of doing the ‘to be or not to be’ speech.” 
 
 And because asking a black actor to be the voice of James Bond doesn’t come without the endless baggage about Bond and race, Oyelowo spoke in depth about the racism he’s faced when playing other iconic characters, like Shakespeare’s Henry VI. Elba's also widely regarded as one of the most beautiful men in the world across all races.
– There have been many calls for a black James Bond, and for a while, there were even rumors Idris Elba would take on the 007 role. (Rumors Elba himself shot down earlier this year.) But at least one prominent person in the Bond universe doesn't think that's a good idea. Anthony Horowitz, author of the new Bond novel Trigger Mortis—officially commissioned by Ian Fleming's estate—says in an extensive interview with the Daily Mail, "For me, Idris Elba is a bit too rough to play the part. It’s not a color issue. I think he is probably a bit too 'street' for Bond. Is it a question of being suave? Yeah." He adds that there are "other black actors who would do it better," like Adrian Lester. Sample reaction: "Apparently, there’s no way for Elba, an actor whose literal job it is to assume characters’ personalities that are not his own, to appear 'suave' enough to play Bond." Dan Van Winkle, The Mary Sue "Hold on, WHAT?!" USA Today headline On Vulture, Dee Lockett calls Horowitz's reasoning "casually racist," noting, "Horowitz doesn't mind if a black man plays Bond, so long as he's the 'right' kind of black." The Telegraph rounds up a number of outraged Twitter reactions, including this: "Are you kidding me? HAVE YOU SEEN THAT MAN IN A SUIT? HAVE YOU SEEN THAT MAN?" The world is, however, kind of already getting its first black Bond.