The UK public voted on who they want to be the next James Bond - and it's bad news for one star

The UK public has been voting on who they want to be cast as the next James Bond.

Via William Hill Vegas, 007 fans had the opportunity to have their say on who would be the top contender to don the famous tuxedo after Daniel Craig retired from the role, with 3500 members of the public voting.

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Idris Elba topped the standings with 17.5% of the vote. This is despite the actor himself previously ruling himself out of the running.

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He has long been one of the favourites to be the next 007 but as time went on Elba soured on the idea of playing Bond after the issue of race continually popped up. If successful in gaining the role, he would be the first black man to play the character.

"I was like, 'This is crazy!' Because James Bond… We're all actors and we understand that role. It's one of those coveted," Elba said on the Smartless podcast.

"Being asked to be James Bond was like, 'Okay, you've sort of reached the pinnacle.'

"That's one of those things the whole world has a vote in.

"Essentially, it was a huge compliment that every corner of the world except for some corners, which we will not talk about, were really happy about the idea that I could be considered. Those that weren't happy about the idea made the whole thing disgusting and off-putting, because it became about race. It became about nonsense, and I got the brunt of it."

The main voting went as follows:

Idris Elba - 17.5%
Tom Hardy - 16.6%
Henry Cavill - 16.5%
James Norton - 10.1%
Luke Evans - 7.6%
Richard Madden - 7.5%
Rege-Jean Page - 6.9%

Interestingly, the bookies' favourite to be named the next James Bond over the last few months has been Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who received just 2.7% of the votes. According to sources, the Bond producers are big fans of the Kick-Ass star and it is believed he has even filmed a version of the famous gun barrel scene from the franchise.