Now that Daniel Craig has hung up his James Bond boots, the iconic role is up for grabs - and Tom Hanks thinks he has the perfect person to take over the reigns!
The 66-year-old acting legend - who is most known for his roles in movies like Castaway and Forrest Gump, among countless other titles - sat down for a recent interview with the BBC, where he discussed his colorful career and upcoming debut novel.
Hanks - a two-time Oscar winner - is set to publish his book called The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, inspired by his own screen career. He started writing the 448-page book in 2018, telling BBC: "I wrote in between films, I wrote wherever I was, I wrote on planes, I wrote at home, I wrote on vacation, I wrote in hotel rooms, I wrote on long weekends when I wasn't working."
Though, like any good meaningful conversation these days, the topic got around to: "Who do you think would be fit to play the next James Bond?"
Fictional secret agent James Bond (known by his codename 007) made his first appearance in Ian Fleming's spy novels during the early 1950s. A huge success, producers managed to purchase the filming rights to the series in the 60s, a move that spawned 27 James Bond movies so far - with the latest flick being 2021's No Time To Die, per Us Weekly.
Throughout the series' more than 60-year history, numerous actors have portrayed the highly coveted role as the international man of mystery, including Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig.
So, when news came out that another Bond movie could hit screens in a few years, the obvious question was: "Who will be the next Bond?" Naturally, the process of casting an actor to portray the British spy - who famously likes his martinis "shaken, not stirred" - will be arduous, but Hanks seems to believe that one actor in particular fits the part perfectly.
"Understand this," Hanks told BBC. "James Bond has a license to kill. I would issue that license to Idris Elba just based on the work that I've seen him do." And he's not alone - former Bond actor Brosnan told People in 2021: "Idris Elba comes to mind. Idris is such a powerful presence and such a great former voice tensity. He would be magnificent."
Brosnan also added: "There's Tom Hardy out there as well. Tom can really chew the furniture up, just be a ball boy - both men can."
Though we can hype up Elba all we want, it's ultimately up to him whether he takes the part or not... And this is something he's discussed in the past. "It is not a goal for my career. I don't think that, you know, playing Bond will satisfy some of my personal goals," he stated, via IndieWire.
Elba also questioned whether the strong public desire for him to play Bond came down to the "allure" of the part being portrayed by a Black man for the first time, stating: "If you are of the agreement that you think that I should play it, can you ask yourselves why and really answer why you think I should play it? Do you think that there's a nostalgia - and be honest, there's a nostalgia to the idea. I shouldn't say nostalgia. There's an allure to the idea of me being the first Black man to play that character?"
