TV’s New James Bond Is a Hilariously Insecure Muslim Actor

Amazon MGM Studios In the 2010 British satire Four Lions , Riz Ahmed plays Omar, a wannabe suicide bomber who, despite coveting the role of jihadist, is clearly in over his head. In the film, Omar believes he is a hero, that he is doing his Muslim community a favor by conspiring to blow up the London Marathon. This theme of self-grandeur and self-worth is one Ahmed revisits in his latest project, Bait , streaming now on Prime Video . This time, however, our protagonist’s goal isn’t to delineate himself from Western society, but the exact opposite. He wants to become the quintessential British icon: James Bond. Bait follows the story of Shah Latif, a washed-up British-Pakistani actor who is desperate to get his career back on track. After tanking his audition to play 007, he purposely gets caught by the paparazzi, leading the internet to spiral over the implications of a brown James Bond. The six-episode series follows Shah across four days, as he’s thrust into the spotlight and the pressure to perform causes him to unravel through wild, outlandish scenarios. Read more at The Daily Beast.

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