David Oyelowo is ‘new James Bond’

British-Nigerian actor David Oyelowo will play the iconic role of Ian Fleming’s 007 James Bond in the September edition of the series.

Oyelowo announced on Thursday, that he will join the likes of from Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig in playing the role of legendary secret agent, James Bond.

The 39-year-old said he had been called by Ian Fleming’s estate to voice Bond, in the audiobook version of Trigger Mortis, written by Anthony Horowitz and commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate.

Confirming the invite by Fleming estate, the Oxford born writer and director said he is the only person on earth fit to be called the new James Bond.

“I am officially the only person on planet Earth who can legitimately say: ‘I am the new James Bond’ – even saying that name is the cinematic equivalent of doing the ‘to be or not to be’ speech,” the UK Guardian quoted him as saying.

“I was asked specifically by the Fleming estate, which is really special.”

In February, Oyelowo visited Nigeria for the Premiere of Selma, a movie that chronicles the “tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition”.

He would only star in James Bond television series if his audiobook contract is reviewed to cover television, and at the expiration of Daniel Craig’s contract, which may be after two other movies.

The multi-award winning entertainer is the first black actor to play an English king in a major Shakespeare production.