EXCLUSIVE: Idris Elba named his own villainous character in Hobbs & Shaw

Rory Cashin

And, to be honest, it is a REALLY cool name.

Idris Elba, on top of being one of the coolest actors in the known universe, has had a long history of playing characters with some great names.

Stringer Bell from The Wire. Tango in American Gangster. Not to mention the iconic Stacker Pentecost from Pacific Rim.

But as the “Black Superman” lead villain in Hobbs & Shaw, his new character name can definitely rank up there in terms of cool monikers: Brixton Lore.

When JOE sat down with the actor in the lead up to the release of the Fast & Furious spin-off, we asked about that name, and it turns out Elba pretty much made it up himself.

“Interesting you say that, because in the script – I’m sure I’m at liberty to say this – but his name was always Bricks,” Elba tells us.

“Bricks, that was it. Like a shit brickhouse. They didn’t have a name for him, so they just said he was a fucking shit brickhouse!

“And then during a discussion with the writers, I said ‘Brixton’, and they asked what would his last name be, and I said L-O-R-R. Obviously I mean ‘law’, as in ‘the law’, but I didn’t want to say ‘the law’, so I said ‘Brixton Lorr’. Awesome name.”

Somewhere along the way, someone must have misheard Elba’s pronunciation, as the internet will tell you that his character name is Brixton Lore, as in a story spread by word of mouth, but to be honest, considering the almost mythical strength that his character has in this movie, that makes a lot of sense too.

You can check out our full chat with Elba right here:

JOE was also lucky enough to chat to two more of the movie’s stars, Jason Statham and Vanessa Kirby, as well as the movie’s writer Chris Morgan (who has written every Fast & Furious movie since Tokyo Drift) and director David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2), and you can catch all those on The Big Reviewski in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Hobbs & Shaw screeches into Irish cinemas on Thursday 1 August.