Idris Elba, 'James Bond' Update: Actor Ignores ‘Too Street’ Comment From Anthony Horowitz, Remains Silent

The Twitterverse erupted Tuesday when “James Bond” author Anthony Horowitz said “Prometheus” actor Idris Elba was “too street” to replace Daniel Craig as Agent 007. While some fans say Elba should be in every movie, other people labeled Horowitz’s comment as racist.

Even though Horowitz apologized for his comment, Elba, 42, remained silent. He’s relatively active on social media, with 1.5 million Twitter followers and 272,000 Instagram followers.

The last time he shared something on social media was a day before Horowitz made his offensive comment. He posted a picture of several cars piled up on a tree trunk. “A lot of junk on that trunk,” the English star captioned the photo. The picture received nearly 3,600 likes and garnered dozens of comments.

Though he hasn’t issued a statement yet, Elba posts to Twitter several times a week on average, and may respond to Horowitz’s apology by the end of the week.

Even though Horowitz originally said Elba is “too street” to play Bond, the actor might be too busy to commit to the popular film franchise anyway. He’s currently making several films.

Elba is lending his voice to the cartoon villain Shere Khan in the revamp of “The Jungle Book;” his vocals will also appear in “Finding Dory,” an offshoot of “Finding Nemo;” and he is in the middle of filming “Star Trek Beyond,” according to the Internet Movie Database.

The comment that originally upset people was Horowitz telling the U.K.’s Daily Mail Elba wasn’t suave enough to follow in Craig’s footsteps. “Idris Elba is a terrific actor, but I can think of other black actors who would do it better,” he said. “For me, Idris Elba is a bit too rough to play the part. It’s not a color issue. I think he is probably a bit too ‘street’ for Bond. Is it a question of being suave? Yeah.”

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella