It's Rumor Time: Okay, fine, maybe Idris Elba really will be the next James Bond

When Daniel Craig finally gave in, late last year, and deigned to accept a big bag of money to return to the role of James Bond, he did all of us in the pop culture speculation realm a world of solids. After all, locking Craig down for his fifth (still untitled) Bond movie spared the rest of us from a few months of the mind-destroying litany of questions about who the next Bond might be, and why it should probably be Idris Elba, and why it still also probably won’t.

But respites from the rumor mill can only last for so long, and so we find ourselves once again fielding apparently idle speculation that Elba—who’s been having to put up with all this bullshit over a part it’s not even clear he’s ever wanted for like five damn years now—is being considered for the role once Craig is done. This is per The Independent, which quoted a different interview with director Antoine Fuqua, who was referencing a statement from Bond mastermind Barbara Broccoli, so, ya know, grain of salt here, please.

Still, Fuqua—why he’s involved here isn’t entirely clear, since he’s never directed or produced a Bond film to date—has said that Broccoli is entirely open to the idea of a non-white Bond, noting that, “it is time” for a little 007 diversity. Fuqua didn’t outright state that Elba—who’s 45 now, just 5 years younger than Craig—was being considered for the part, but did note that “Idris could do it if he was in shape. You need a guy with physically strong presence. Idris has that.”

Meanwhile, a representative for the internet’s Department Of Backlash-Based Energy Production issued a statement earlier this afternoon, confirming that, while this latest round of Idris-Elba-As-Bond rumors probably won’t generate quite as much power as the last crop of racist and semi-racist backlashes and responses, it should be enough to keep the lights on for a couple more months, at least.