One of the best actors of all time, renowned for his superhit action movies and TV series, Idris Elba is loved by fans worldwide for his awesome on-screen performances. With blockbuster television shows like the five seasons Luther, the 50-year-old actor has even bagged a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Heimdall, which went on to become one of the most loved characters of all time.
However, there was a time when Elba nearly had his own superhero movie in Marvel, though unfortunately, it ended up getting canceled, leaving him to star as the beloved gatekeeper in Thor, which he recalls as a ‘horrible’ experience.
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Idris Elba Almost Had His Own Superhero Movie In Marvel Before Starring In Thor 2
While his role in Thor as the gatekeeper Heimdall is also one that is widely loved by fans worldwide, there was a time when Idris Elba almost had his own superhero Marvel movie. Sharing in an interview how he almost played the character of Luke Cage, which he found ‘pretty interesting’, he said,
“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…”
Though he couldn’t get his own superhero movie where he played the comic book character, Marvel did end up creating a 2 seasons TV series on the character titled Marvel’s Luke Cage back in 2016. But while the show became popular among fans, it’s a shame to know that Idris Elba wasn’t the one starring in it as the main character.
Idris Elba Hated Shooting Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Idris Elba also revealed in another interview how he hated shooting Thor: The Dark World, though his reason is rather genuine. At the time, he had only just wrapped shooting for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and that too, a mere four weeks after his father’s death, and as soon as he returned to England, he was asked to do reshoots for the Chris Hemsworth starrer movie.
Revealing how he didn’t really have a chance to even shake off his inner Mandela that he had acquired throughout the time shooting the biopic, he said,
“I didn’t quite shake it off. It was really weird,” he begins. “I’d just done eight months in South Africa. I came to England and the day I came back I had to do reshoots on Thor 2.” He raises an eyebrow. “And in the actual scene, my hair was different, my… [sighs exhasperatedly] I was like, ‘This is torture, man. I don’t want to do this.’ My agent said: ‘You have to, it’s part of the deal.’ ”
He further shared the heartbreaking moment while shooting Thor 2 when he realized the ‘horrible’ experience he was having.
“I’m actually falling down from a spaceship, so they had to put me in harness in this green-screen studio. And in between takes I was stuck there, fake hair stuck on to my head with glue, this f—— helmet, while they reset. And I’m thinking: ‘24 hours ago, I was Mandela’. When I walked into the set the extras called me Madiba. I was literally walking in this man’s boots. [Within] six months, the crew, we were all so in love with this film we had made. I was him. I was Mandela, practically,” he insists. “Then there I was, in this stupid harness, with this wig and this sword and these contact lenses. It ripped my heart out.”
