I said at the release of his first film. Moore was 45 when Live and Let Die came out. Elba is 43 today, and would be 45-46 when his theoretical first film comes out unless they really rush things.
Every single day that passes puts him farther and farther outside of the "norm."
I'm not trying to be difficult here. It just seems plausible that the window for Idris has passed. I would love to be wrong, I just ain't getting my hopes up.
I know what you said. And regarding Moore, he was born in 1927. LALD came out in 1973. so he was 46 on the year of release. Elba goes 44 this year, if he was announced as Bond today and they pump out a film by 2018, he'd be the same age as Moore on year of release, not
the oldest per your earlier statement. The issue now is the number of years between films. Connery pumped out a Bond film every year from Dr.No to Thunderball, skipped a year, then You only leave twice. Moore was every 2 years for the most part, as was Dalton, then the 6 year gap between License to Kill and Goldeneye, then Brosnan pumped out a film every 2 years( 3 between the world is not enough and Die another day). But there was 4 years between QOS and Skyfall, and 3 between Skyfall and Spectre. If they're going to stretch it out like that for whatever reason( and yeah, I'm aware there were things going on behind the scenes during Craig's tenure), then yeah casting a 44 year old Elba 'may' be an issue if they want to get 10 years of mileage. If they stuck with a 2-3 year release window, Elba could have as many as 3 Bond films out by 50.
And again, more important than the actor's real life age is the age they appear onscreen and how old the filmmakers want him to portray. Elba shaved probably looks around 40-41 max,so him being 43/44 is irrelevant if he can portray a character a few years younger than his real-life age. It depends on which Bond version we're getting next, are we sticking with 'early' career Bond and continuing the Craig film lineage, or are we going with a more mature Bond? Are they soft-rebooting again? He's a character that exists in his own time bubble as the world around him changes and ages, so it's really about what the filmmakers are doing after Spectre. Craig has aged a fair bit visually in the last 3-4 years, making his portrayal of 'early' career Bond no longer viable because of how he 'looks', not because the actor in real life is 47/48.
Personally, I don't want Elba as Bond because I'm not interested in an PC ethnicity switch for a character who was created to be a white Brit. Just as I wouldn't want Shaft to be depicted as a white man if the character was imagined as a jive-talking Black American male. Elba's age doesn't factor anywhere in my mind as to his appropriateness for the role.
