Idris Elba Is Campaigning for a 'Black Panther' Role — Just Not as a Villain (Exclusive)

Idris Elba is angling for another role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. ET spoke to Elba and his wife, Sabrina, on the champagne carpet of the 95th Academy Awards, where the Thor star told ET that he'd be interested in snagging a role in the next Black Panther project -- just not as a villain.

"I want to come in," Elba shared, noting that he didn't want to join the Ryan Coogler-directed franchise in a villain role. "Look, if I'm invited into the Wakanda series, I would love to be an old uncle they forgot. Uncle Jakeka! And he's just like, old school... I'll take the uncle role!"

Elba previously starred in the Thor series as Heimdall alongside Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Natalie Portman. Heimdall meets his end in the beginning of the action-packed Phase 3 film, Avengers: Infinity War, but makes a brief cameo in one of Thor: Love and Thunder's post-credits scenes.

At the film's end, following the ultimate defeat of Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), thanks in part to the tragic sacrifice of Jane Foster, aka Mighty Thor (Portman, in her Marvel return), Thor teams up with Gorr's resurrected daughter, now known as Love, which is the first fun Easter egg for fans -- because the young hero is actually played by Hemsworth's real-life 10-year-old daughter, India Rose Hemsworth! (The actor's twin sons, Tristan and Sasha, also play a younger version of Thor in a flashback, while Bale and Portman's kids have cameos as young citizens of New Asgard.)

Heimdall is the one to welcome Jane/Mighty Thor (Portman) to the afterlife in Valhalla. "I see you're dead now," he teases, before thanking her for helping to save the New Asgard children, which included his son, Axel, who -- thankfully, for Thor's sake -- has inherited his abilities to control the Bifrost.

Considering how things have taken a wild turn for the multiverse in the MCU, Elba could make that cross from Thor to a Black Panther title without too much fuss. After Letitia Wright's Princess Shuri took over the mantle of Black Panther in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she could use an elder with some wise words as she begins her superhero journey!

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