Black Panther Star Daniel Kaluuya Would Rather Be a Bond Villain Than 007

Last year saw Daniel Craig playing James Bond for the last time in No Time To Die. The actor portrayed the iconic spy for over 15 years, and fans are eager to find out who will take on the role next. Producer Barbara Broccoli previously said the next installment will be a “reinvention” of the character, but it doesn’t sound like they are deep into their search. Many big names have been thrown around by fans, including Tom Hardy, James Norton, Idris Elba, Sam Heughan, Richard Madden, Jack Lowden, Cillian Murphy, and Regé-Jean Page. Recently, Miles Teller’s grandma started to campaign for her grandson to get the role. Currently, Black Panther and Get Out star, Daniel Kaluuya, is busy promoting his upcoming movie, Nope. While chatting with Yahoo Entertainment, Kaluuya was asked if he’d be interested in playing Bond.

“I just don’t [know] if I’d want to watch my version of James Bond. That’s just me. That’s just me, I go, ‘I don’t wanna watch that.’ But I’d want to watch a villain. I’d do that. I think that would be fun,” Kaluuya shared.

In addition to Nope, Kaluuya is also working on a Barney movie that he teases will be darker than the original kids’ show. The actor also revealed this week the sad news that he won’t be appearing in the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.  During a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kaluuya said he didn’t reveal the news earlier because he didn’t want to disappoint people.

“If I said anything, people would be really disappointed. That’s how I feel about it. I think people will be disappointed. They don’t want to be spoiled. They’re surprised in whatever will happen. That’s what was amazing about the first one,” he explained. The actor revealed he was unable to reprise his role for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever due to filming conflicts with the Nope production.

“My last number of films have been so aligned to kind of what I stand for as a man,” Kaluuya recently said when asked about his Barney movie. “But there are a whole lot of things that I do as a man. I love kids’ films. How did everyone get into films? Watching kids’ films. I don’t want to restrict myself to the limitations of what I’m perceived as.”

“I’ve never told you this, but when you reached out to me and we had that Skype, I was really disillusioned with acting. I had stopped acting for like a year and a half,” Kaluuya told Essence recently. “I checked out, because I was just like, this isn’t working. I wasn’t getting roles, because racism and all this kind of stuff—so you reaching out was like, Okay, I’m not crazy. It’s proper. It’s going to be all right.”

Would you like to see Kaluuya play a Bond villain? Tell us in the comments! 

Nope lands in theaters on July 22nd.