Idris Elba Says He Was Approached About Luke Cage Once, Commence Emotions

See? Emotions.

Lets just put it out there: there are a lot of actors out there who have been interested in the role of Luke Cage for some time now. Tyrese Gibson was in talks in the mid-2000s, Isaiah Mustafa went so far as to make a fan trailer with himself in the title role, and the Rock has also expressed his interest.

Idris Elba, while he hasn’t exactly expressed interest, did tell the Huffington Post that he was once approached to play the hero for hire:

There was talk about Luke Cage at one time – I thought Luke Cage was a pretty interesting character. They were going to do it, but I don’t know what happened.

My guess would be that the British actor’s star has risen a bit too far for a Netflix series at this point in time. And the fact that he plays Heimdall in the Thor franchise probably means Marvel will be looking for someone else this time around. Maybe somebody like Gibson, Mustafa, or Johnson, or any of the other innumerable black actors who know that the opportunity to play an honest-to-god main character in a super hero franchise happens about once a decade or less.

But even if Marvel does wind up getting into further talks with Elba (I can’t say I would complain if he were cast) it wouldn’t be the first time he’s double dipped in the Marvel Universe: he also had a role in Ghostrider: Spirit of Vengeance. But I’m sure you were trying to forget that.

(via Digital Spy.)