Idris Elba Will Train Guy Ritchie's King Arthur

Thor and Luther actor Idris Elba will mentor King Arthur in Guy Ritchie's new fantasy movie about the Arthurian legend at Warner Bros. According to Variety, Elba will play a "Merlin-like figure" who trains Arthur and mentors the future king of Camelot. Whether this means the iconic wizard will actually appear in the movie itself is unknown, as is the plot which is also shrouded in mystery... although we do know that a huge SIX film franchise was blueprinted at one point. Already scheduled for release exactly two years tomorrow on July 22nd, 2016 - King Arthur is currently casting and will begin shooting later in the year. No one is yet set to play the title character (tests for the role are reportedly to begin in August with invites to Ritchie's interested candidates going out in days), nor the members of his roundtable, which will presumably include famous characters such as Guinevere and Lancelot. The hiring of Elba (who previously worked with Ritchie in Rock"N"Rolla) though is interesting and does make you wonder how prominent his role will be in the film. Perhaps he will serve the same kind of purpose as Morgan Freeman in genre classic Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, basically the film's second hero. Written by Joby Harold, who wrote and directed the ultimately forgettable Jessica Alba/Hayden Christensen 2007 thriller Awake, King Arthur will be produced by Akiva Goldsman and Tory Tunnell. Meanwhile, Ritchie's next film The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is due for release on January 16th, 2015.