Was Scarlett Johansson cast to play the first black James Bond? No, that's nonsense. The story was invented by a satirical website mocking both Johansson's own portrayal of Asian and transgender characters in other movie projects and the rumor that black actor Idris Elba was going to be the next Bond.
The story originated from an article published by The Hard Times on August 22, 2018 titled "Scarlett Johansson Cast as First Black James Bond" (archived here) which opened:
LOS ANGELES -- MGM Studios announced today that Scarlett Johansson has been cast to play the first black James Bond, taking a groundbreaking new direction for the classic spy character."It's such an honor to help breathe new life into this historic franchise," said Johansson during a morning press conference. "As an actress, I'm always trying to challenge myself and really push the boundaries of acting. I'm ready to show the world what it really means to be a black British superspy, and I can't wait to hear all the positive feedback from my fans."
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Scarlett Johansson Cast as First Black James Bond
Scarlett Johansson has been cast to play the first black James Bond, taking a groundbreaking new direction for the classic spy character.
The Hard Times has an about page that explains what is going on:
The Hard Times is a very real punk news site that you should not question. Just absorb the information as truth and move on. The historic satire site was founded in December 1982 at 171A studios while the founding members were eating broken glass with The Bad Brains. It's made by a group of punk and hardcore kids from all the different sub-genres of the DIY hardcore scene. Any resemblance to actual persons or band names is coincidental.
You can read more about Scarlett Johansson and the controversies surrounding some of her roles here:
Scarlett Johansson faces casting backlash, this time for playing a transgender man
In a controversial decision, Scarlett Johansson has been cast in "Rub & Tug," the true story of Dante "Tex" Gill, a transgender massage parlor owner. She faced a similar flap for last year's "Ghost in the Shell," which cast her as a Japanese manga character.
And for the record, Elba has denied he will be the next Bond:
Idris Elba confirms he won't be the next Bond
IDRIS Elba has confirmed he is not going to play the next James Bond. The rumour mill has been rife recently over who will replace actor Daniel Craig when he eventually steps down as 007, The Sun reports.
We wrote about thehardtimes.net before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
