https://abc7chicago.com/entertainment/could-idris-elba-be-the-next-james-bond/3922720/
This is definitely a new thing, taking iconic characters who were previously played by whites, and blackwashing them.
Is this what moviegoers really want?
Maybe moviegoers don’t care. And black men have an alpha-male swagger about them that most whites don’t have (or would be considered “toxic masculinity” if they did have it but blacks can get away with it), so they are good action heroes.
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Lion of the Blogosphere 
Idris Elba previously played a character from Asgard in the Thor superhero franchise. You can’t get any whiter than Norse mythology, for Odin’s sake.
Oswald Spengler
August 10, 2018 at 1:14 PM
The leftsplaining explanation for that was that in the world of the Thor comics, they’re not actually gods, but rather extremely powerful aliens, and it’s all fictional anyway, so it’s no more unrealistic for one of them to be black than for all of them to be white.
Hermes
August 10, 2018 at 2:55 PM
As with science and magic, the comes a point where “god” and “extremely powerful alien” are indistinguishable.
Peregrino Nuzkwamia
August 10, 2018 at 3:18 PM
Elba wasn’t that good in Thor. He had really bad hair and lacked gravitas.
Loved the dr. strange cameo, too cute!
I wish lion would review thor.
toomanymice
August 10, 2018 at 4:27 PM
There’s an HBCU in North Carolina whose mascot is the Vikings.
Jokah Macpherson
August 10, 2018 at 4:33 PM
No movie goers don’t want it, but the media always pushes it and the infiltration of SJWs into the industry is making it happen. The James Bond franchise is dying already, and with the absolute failure of Idris Elbra’s last leading man foray in The Dark Tower, this would probably kill the franchise.
Alex
August 10, 2018 at 1:15 PM
I guess we’ll see if viewers want it by comparing receipts of the next 007 movie to previous ones.
Gozo
August 10, 2018 at 2:48 PM
A Black James Bond movie won’t be held to such such objectively white supremacist standards as box office sales. Although I suspect there would be a lot of promotion of the type like Black Panther had, where Black celebrities buy tickets for large numbers of black kids.
Mike Street Station
August 11, 2018 at 8:14 AM
This has been a meme at the aged middle aged ladies birthday parties and brunches I’ve attended in the last five-six years. It almost seems illegal for a Gen X lady to say they have a crush on a white actor. They were all Hillary voters, of course.
Christine
August 10, 2018 at 1:36 PM
Every time a white actor is cast to play a character previously played by a non-white, the left goes crazy screaming about “whitewashing”. So this is a double-standard which I imagine most of your readers are thoughtful enough to have picked up on. This is why I never take the left seriously and have no qualms about fighting dirty. You can’t “play nice” when your opponents are scoundrels.
destructure
August 10, 2018 at 2:04 PM
Also, there have already been black Bond girls, ranging from the ugly and masculine Grace Jones in A View to a Kill (which was an attempt to force the public to pretend that ugly, masculine black women are attractive) to Halle Berry, who at least was feminine and attractive, in Die Another Day. But rest assured, the Bond girl in an Idris Elba Bond movie will be white.
Hermes
August 10, 2018 at 2:10 PM
If you’re defining “Bond girl” to mean anyone Bond sleeps with, then the first black Bond girl was CIA agent Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry) in Live and Let Die, the eighth Bond film and the premiere of Roger Moore as James Bond.
Rosie Carver: They’ll kill me if I do.
James Bond: And I’ll kill you if you don’t.
Rosie Carver: But you couldn’t. You wouldn’t. Not after what we just done.
James Bond: Well, I certainly wouldn’t have killed you before.
D.
August 10, 2018 at 7:31 PM
It was bad enough that Idris Elba got the role of Roland, “the Gunslinger” in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s “the Dark Tower.” Stephen King himself had mentioned that the Gunslinger was loosely based on Clint Eastwood’s “man with no name” character in his spaghetti westerns. And the physical descriptions in the books and the cover art all depict an Eastwoodesque gunslinger. Clint, by this time, was too old for the role, but Idris Elba was just flat out wrong.
Kosher Kowboy
August 10, 2018 at 2:59 PM
Besides “The Shining,” have any of the Stephen King movies been any good?
Speaking of movies, OT: Has the Lion or any of the New Yorkers who comment here seen the new print of 2001?
Gozo
August 10, 2018 at 3:16 PM
Carrie, Children of the Corn, Stand By Me, Pet Sematary, The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist, and the new It are all pretty good.
Horace Pinker
August 10, 2018 at 3:54 PM
The Running Man, Misery, The Green Mile
Jokah Macpherson
August 10, 2018 at 4:32 PM
The Stand ABC miniseries (1994) was well done, especially given the constraints of a made for network TV program broadcast in the mid-1990s.
The Shining miniseries (broadcast three years later on ABC) really suffered in comparison to the Kubrick film adaptation.
Oswald Spengler
August 10, 2018 at 5:01 PM
Ironically, the TV version of The Shining was made at King’s behest. He hated Kubrick’s film and loathed Jack Nicholson’s performance.
I watched The Langoliers when it first aired (on two consecutive nights) on ABC. I was blown away by the quality of the acting and the visual effects.
Stan Adams
August 10, 2018 at 11:21 PM
“He hated Kubrick’s film”
Did he hate Carrie?
Curle
August 11, 2018 at 12:31 PM
Here’s why he doesn’t like The Shining:
http://renegadecinema.com/14807/stephen-king-stanley-kubrick-the-shining
AFAIK, he’s never said anything publicly about Carrie. The film did give a big boost to his career – it came out shortly before The Shining (the book) was published.
He once jokingly said that, after directing Maximum Overdrive, he lost the right to criticize other directors’ renditions of his books. He does like Rob Reiner’s movies (Stand by Me and Misery). He wrote Dolores Claiborne specifically for Kathy Bates.
Stan Adams
August 11, 2018 at 9:14 PM
Is Elba a particularly good actor? I’d never heard of him. He sure doesn’t seem to be very good-looking, certainly not on a par with Denzel or Bill Dee Williams or even Louis Gossett, at a similar age.
Vipltd
August 10, 2018 at 3:23 PM
I remember Idris Elba’s performance in Pacific Rim being quite good. I saw the first two Thor movies last week and while the movies were trash, his performance in those movies was good – though he didn’t have a lot of material to work with on account of the movies being lousy.
I’d say that he’s a good actor. As other people here are saying, though, I’m fed up with SJWs complaining about “whitewashing,” and then recasting old white male roles and franchises with women and non-whites. As a matter of principle, I don’t watch “blackwashed” movies. I try to avoid SJW infested entertainment as much as possible, which means I watch fewer movies each year.
That said, British intelligence and special forces use non-whites from their former colonies all the time. You could make a legitimately exciting movie about a black British citizen in the SAS or MI6. If they made a new British spy series on that premise, I could be persuaded to watch it.
Sid
August 10, 2018 at 3:55 PM
Yeah, I’ve started avoiding movies with any sort of -washing. I refuse to pay money to see Star Trek Beyond because of the gaywashing of Sulu, which they did because George Takei is gay even though Takei himself was opposed to it, saying that he wasn’t playing Sulu as a gay character.
Hermes
August 10, 2018 at 4:41 PM
” If they made a new British spy series on that premise, I could be persuaded to watch it.”
Right, but the point about blackwashing is to ram home the message that whites are being literally displaced. Not added to, which would be the case of writing new movies with black heroes in a legitimate way, as you suggested, but to replace whites.
Which is why in the long run it will all be a failure. No one will remember these movies. Do you remember that sometime in the 70s they made a female version of It’s a Wonderful Life, with Marlo Thomas in the Jimmy Stewart role? They did.
gothamette
August 10, 2018 at 5:49 PM
Hermes – Agreed totally. What’s so infuriating is the arrogance of the producers, assuming that white men would show up even after they hollowed out our cherished franchises. Ghostbusters 2016, Solo, and Ocean’s Eight are proving otherwise.
gothamette – I think a non-white British spy franchise would’ve worked well from roughly 2002 to the end of the 2011. They could’ve focused on terrorism, Third World organized crime networks, and Britain still trying to stay relevant in a postcolonial war.
But since 2012, the overall mood among leftists has become ever more blatantly and venomously anti-white male, and it’s showing up in entertainment so frequently that it’s already old. Whatever good will and receptivity for the concept has been squandered.
If Idris Elba had been Bond in 2006, I would’ve been very intrigued and receptive to the idea, and I was a budding HBDer even back then. Now I wouldn’t be able to do anything but roll my eyes and check to see when the next Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise is coming out.
Sid
August 10, 2018 at 6:18 PM
SJWs are constantly going on about how Idris Elba is the Sexiest Man Alive. Even the heterosexual male ones, they fall all over each other to say things like “I’m as straight a guy as they come, but Idris Elba is just impossibly hot.” Check the comment section of any article about him if you don’t believe me. It’s really weird.
snorlaxwp
August 10, 2018 at 5:15 PM
” Even the heterosexual male ones, they fall all over each other to say things like “I’m as straight a guy as they come, but Idris Elba is just impossibly hot.”
I won’t do that, but I did happen to be watching Jimmy Kimmel or Fallon (I confuse the two) and some 3rd rate schmo of a comic was one, who was a Met fan. Since I am a Met fan, I didn’t turn it off. The comic was white, and he began raving about Darryl Strawberry. “No one ever looked better in a baseball uniform,” he said, several times. At that point, I turned the TV off.
There’s gotta be a word for “beyond cuck.”
gothamette
August 10, 2018 at 5:51 PM
I thought Straw looked kind of goofy. While always giving the impression that he wasn’t trying very hard.
Lion of the Blogosphere
August 10, 2018 at 5:54 PM
That wasn’t my point. But thanks.
gothamette
August 10, 2018 at 6:18 PM
I always refer to Erick Erickson as “fattened gelding Erick Erickson.” You could use that.
snorlaxwp
August 10, 2018 at 6:55 PM
It has to have the word cuck in it. Ubercuck?
gothamette
August 10, 2018 at 8:57 PM
“I won’t do that,”
meaning, check the comment lines of movie sites.
gothamette
August 10, 2018 at 5:52 PM
And Michelle Obama is the most beautiful woman, bested only by A+ actress and romantic lead Gabourey Sidibe.
Curle
August 11, 2018 at 12:21 PM
I don’t understand why alt-right people like to insult Michelle Obama’s looks. There are many first ladies who looked worse. Barbara Bush for example.
Lion of the Blogosphere
August 11, 2018 at 2:26 PM
It’s super-triggering to blacks. They get MAD.
snorlaxwp
August 11, 2018 at 3:36 PM
“There’s gotta be a word for “beyond cuck.”
In this instance, butt-pirate cuck will do.
Curle
August 11, 2018 at 12:23 PM
“I don’t understand why alt-right people like to insult Michelle Obama’s looks.”
I don’t either, but my comment was following up on snorlaxwp observation that “SJWs are constantly going on about how Idris Elba is the Sexiest Man Alive.” They did the same thing with Michelle, really over the top. Similar virtue spectacle with Gouberey and her supposed future as a major actress. Howard Stern had a good time laughing at that spectacle.
Curle
August 11, 2018 at 3:00 PM
I agree with Curle; I don’t get the alt-right hating on Michelle Obama’s looks, but the liberal loving on her looks bothers me a heck of a lot more.
Hermes
August 11, 2018 at 9:59 PM
He played an intellectually-inclined drug dealer on The Wire, The Greatest Show That Television Has Ever Created Or Ever Will. Like Lin-Manuel Miranda, he’s a minority with SWPL affectations, which makes the media slobber over him.
njguy73
August 10, 2018 at 5:41 PM
I just couldn’t get into that. Is there an especially good episode I could skip to, to get sucked in?
toomanymice
August 10, 2018 at 6:37 PM
I couldn’t tell you. I never watched the show. All I know is that critics universally call it The Best Show Ever and throw a hairy fit if you suggest anything else might be better.
And supposedly, it’s the kind of show you have to watch from the start and devote yourself to, or you won’t get what’s going on.
njguy73
August 10, 2018 at 8:16 PM
The Wire is a great show, because it is fairly honest. There are good sincere white cops and corrupt venal black politicians. It is left wing but more in a traditional 1970s left-libertarian way than in a modern identity politics way.
Peter Akuleyev
August 11, 2018 at 7:03 AM
I tried watching it a while back after hearing its accolades but thought it was a snoozefest. If you like gritty crime shows with corrupt politicians, bosch is better. Probably one of the best/ creepiest film serial killers ever in season 1.
toomanymice
August 11, 2018 at 1:05 PM
Season 2 of the Wire was the best, the last one, No 5, was the worst.
They are self contained, so you can start with 2, and if you like it then watch 1, 3, and 4.
I wouldn’t watch 5 again. Not actively bad, just kind of boring. The other four were very compelling, i was watching 2-3 episodes a day when I discovered it.
Poppppp
August 12, 2018 at 3:10 PM
Maybe in the future James Bond could be also a woman?
tmmm
August 10, 2018 at 6:42 PM
Or a biological man that identifies as a woman.
E. Rekshun
August 10, 2018 at 6:57 PM
“Or a biological man that identifies as a woman.”
Hilarity ensues when he has to go to the bathroom!
Lion of the Blogosphere
August 10, 2018 at 7:03 PM
“Jame Gumb Bond”
“Oh wait…was that SPECTRE agent a great big fat person?!”
Oswald Spengler
August 10, 2018 at 7:47 PM
TBH, I’m a bit surprised they’re not lobbying for a black lesbian Bond. I guess we’re maybe still 2-3 Bonds away from that. I imagine Hollywood would love nothing more than to make that beefy black from the female Ghostbusters into the star of every film, if only they could pay the bills while doing so.
I was never a fan of Bond, though to be fair, I never watched the old ones and only caught some of the Brosnan and Craig movies.
Wency
August 10, 2018 at 6:50 PM
I never watched the old ones
I only watched the old ones, starring Sean Connery and Roger Moore. The last one I saw was Octopussy in 1983.
E. Rekshun
August 10, 2018 at 8:08 PM
Global demographics are changing to African predominance so a black Bond will go over as well financially if money is all that matters.
Artifact
August 10, 2018 at 8:02 PM
Africans don’t have money and they don’t speak English.
chris
August 11, 2018 at 5:44 AM
Africans dont have any money and blackwashing doesnt do well in India or China. Even Black Panther tanked in China despite the massive push there. It doesnt mean it wont happen as the elite keep pushing their crap down everyones throats.
dvdivx
August 11, 2018 at 2:19 AM
“The largest international box-office results for “Black Panther,” so far, came from South Korea, which generated $27.1 million in box office receipts for the film.”
Artifact
August 12, 2018 at 6:05 AM
“black men have an alpha-male swagger about them that most whites don’t have (or would be considered “toxic masculinity” if they did have it but blacks can get away with it”
Often pondered on this fact myself, it really is incredible how much leeway black skin can give people, especially in popular culture. Black men’s prowess as athletes and musicians probably goes a long way to explain this. Black men’s hyper extroversion combined with their “history of suffering” probably doesn’t hurt one bit either, And then there’s what Steve Sailer described as black people’s “gift of gab”, the little discussed but still extraordinary skill some blacks (and especially men) have with verbal skills. Not exactly the equivalent of Jewish verbal IQ admittedly, but fior every Rachel Jeantel, there seems to be a Chris Rock type to balance things out.
Roli
August 11, 2018 at 9:59 AM
Listening to people use words or refer to concepts they don’t understand gets old fast.
Curle
August 11, 2018 at 12:12 PM
alpha-male swagger… prowess as athletes… hyper extroversion… “gift of gab”
Top of the line white male actors have all this, plus the structural advantage of coloration (being able to blush and blanch); they’ll always excel with complex characters.
Bond probably doesn’t need too much complexity.
This still strikes me as affirmative action. We’re madly giving stuff away, like iconic movie roles, in hopes of building a better future; but the better future never comes.
bomag
August 11, 2018 at 5:50 PM
“This still strikes me as affirmative action. We’re madly giving stuff away, like iconic movie roles, in hopes of building a better future; but the better future never comes.”
It’s like Westmoreland and the “best and brightest” in the Johnson administration assuring the American people that in Vietnam “…we’re finally winning…we’ve almost turned the corner…we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Oswald Spengler
August 12, 2018 at 12:52 AM
James Bond trivia: there is a lost Bond novel called Per Fine Ounce, though a South African writer named Geoffrey Jenkins wrote it in collaboration with Ian Fleming rather than it having been Fleming’s sole product. Jenkins and Fleming were longtime friends and began work on the novel’s outline and themes in the late 1950’s. From what little is known the story took place in the African gold mines (Per Fine Ounce is a trade term) and involved Bond defying official orders and acting in a rogue capacity. Fleming died in 1964 before actual writing began and Jenkins completed the manuscript.
Jenkins submitted the manuscript to Fleming’s publishing company in 1965 but the editors said it was too poorly written to be suitable for publication. There must have been some unstated reason for the rejection as Jenkins was a good writer whose own works were reasonably popular. The publishers sent what was apparently the only copy of the manuscript back to Jenkins, but what became of it is unknown. Rumors say that the publishers still have a copy but they deny it. After Jenkins died in 2001 his son found 18 pages among his father’s records, in fact he later allowed two pages to be published on a fansite, but the rest of the manuscript is still missing.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
August 11, 2018 at 10:16 AM
If I was the heirs I’d find a way to bribe someone at the publishers to do some digging. If Ivan Boesky could do it at law firms how hard would a publisher be?
Curle
August 11, 2018 at 12:09 PM
A black James Bond ? That was expected. Wake me up when there is an ugly James Bond.
Thomas
August 11, 2018 at 11:12 AM
“Wake me up when there is an ugly James Bond.”
As long as he has alpha-male swagger, he would be perceived as sexually desirable even if ugly.
Lion of the Blogosphere
August 11, 2018 at 11:27 AM
There are plenty of ugly, or at least not handsome, actors who have been fabulously successful. Christopher Lloyd and F murray abraham come to mind. You rarely see an ugly woman in serious (non character actor/ not fat funny woman) roles. I wonder why this is?
An ugly but well acted james bond isn’t a bad idea actually.
toomanymice
August 11, 2018 at 1:20 PM
Meryl Streep was never pretty.
Curle
August 11, 2018 at 3:21 PM
“Steve Buscemi is Double Oh Seven!”
Oswald Spengler
August 11, 2018 at 4:45 PM
really? she seems pretty enough to me at least when she was younger. Definitely not cringe worthy ugly.
toomanymice
August 11, 2018 at 6:38 PM
The black(washed) knight always triumphs!
driveallnight
August 11, 2018 at 3:16 PM
There is something more insidious about these blatant blackwashings of traditionally virile white male roles (think the “Equalizer” movies) and it’s something to do about positioning blame when the separation of a critical white mass triggers violent “black” self-annihilation. In other words, the trend is “collapse” and “collapse” is “equality” is “equality” is “anti-white male” and “anti-white male” is “death to white man” and this triggers separation AND the equal and opposite reaction. “Black” self-annihilation.
Left to his own devices, nigger mass homicides.
thordaddy
August 13, 2018 at 2:29 AM