Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw hasn’t even come out yet, but there’s at least one line that everyone who’s seen the trailer knows about. I’m talking about the “black Superman” joke that prominently graced at least a couple major clips. Given actor Idris Elba’s career trajectory, the line is very fitting, and is one that almost feels fourth-wall-breaking in nature. But, as it turns out, it almost ended up being even more fourth-wall-breaking.

As it turns out, the original line was supposed to read “I’m black James Bond.” Producer and star Dwayne Johnson told Variety that Elba declined to say the line as written because  “It’s too close to what everybody’s talking about.”

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For those of you not following his career or all the online buzz, Elba has been speculated to be in the running for James Bond for years, in spite of continual denial from him. I guess the last thing he needed was to fan the flames with a tongue-in-cheek joke, especially with Daniel Craig’s final James Bond film on the horizon.

In terms of who came up with black Superman, Johnson takes credit for it…but so does Elba, saying that it was an improvised line.

“Everyone loves ‘the black Superman’ line,” Johnson said. “Everyone’s taking credit for it – Idris, our director, our producers, I’m sure, Jason [Statham]…[but] I came up with that. I said, ‘What about the black Superman?’ And everyone’s like, ‘Great!’ [But] now everyone takes credit.”

Hobbs & Shaw hits theaters on August 2, 2019.

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SOURCE: Variety