Idris Elba is almost certainly never going to become James Bond, but you know what? He’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine. The Wire alum will probably do more episodes of Luther. He’ll actually have time to do challenging roles, like in Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation. And yet he’ll still be big enough to have Dwayne Johnson post “first look” pictures of him on Instagram in movies like Hobbs and Shaw.
As it turns out, that’s exactly what the actor-formerly-known-as-The-Rock did on Thursday. Johnson has been slowly parceling out black-and-white stills from the set of his Fast and the Furious spin-off with Jason Statham, which started filming in September. First he did Staham and director David Leitch, then himself and Staham. Now he’s done Elba.
And Johnson really built Elba (and his villain character) up. Attached to a photo of Elba amidst three cronies, all pointing guns, he wrote:
I learned a long time ago (when I was a very sinful eyebrow raising villainous man in the crazy world of pro wrestling;) that heroes are only as great as their greatest villains. A pleasure to introduce the man himself @idriselba we brought in to our Fast & Furious franchise to wreak havoc, hell and mayhem on our heroes HOBBS & SHAW.
He also revealed Elba’s baddie’s name: Brixton. Which almost sounds like Brexit, sort of! And Elba, if you forgot, is British! Is this stealth political commentary? Or just a sly reference to this Clash song? Anyway, it suggests Elba will be using his natural accent.
Hobbs and Shaw will pit the Fast and Furious frenemies played by Johnson and Statham together, where they’ll fight Elba. Also exciting? It’s directed by David Leitch, one-half, along with Chad Stahleski, of the stunt choreographers-turned-filmmakers tag team that brought you the original John Wick. The two have since parted ways, Stahelski to make more John Wicks (plus, possibly, a Highlander reboot), Leitch to Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2.
Still photos are cool, but we can’t wait to see these guys in motion, beating the crap out of each other.