Idris Elba and His Wife are Making Their First Project Together, and It’s Not What Anyone Expected
Idris Elba and his wife, Sabrina Dhowre-Elba, have announced a new TV series that they will help produce, and it’s far from what you might expect. Married since 2019, this will be the first project that the couple will work on together.
Idris Elba is stepping into the world of anime
The Elbas announced on Tuesday, Feb. 2, that they will partner with anime streaming service, Crunchyroll, to produce Dantai, an exclusive original series for the platform. According to Polygon, the show will sport an afro-futurist aesthetic, sure to be familiar to fans of Marvel’s Black Panther, and will be set in “a city where the rise of biotechnology has created an ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots.”
With over 4 million active subscribers, Crunchyroll has risen to become a dominant force in the expanding global market for anime. It was recently purchased by competitor Funimation to the tune of $1.175 billion, but the two services have remained separate, for now.
Crunchyroll’s growing library of exclusive titles includes Tower of God and Onyx Equinox. It also currently has a licensing partnership with HBO Max, allowing the latter to offer series like Re:ZERO and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
“We’re really excited to be announcing this deal on our first anime,” Idris and Sabrina Elba said in a statement. “We’re both fans of the genre and see a huge opportunity to create something unique for a powerhouse like Crunchyroll. The story of Dantai is our first collaboration as producers together and is one that is close to our hearts.”
The actor first met his current wife in 2017
According to the BBC, the couple first began dating in 2017, a year after Elba ended his previous relationship with Naiyana Garth. He proposed after a screening of Yardie, his directorial debut, in East London in 2018.
A true renaissance man, in addition to acting, Elba also has a side career as a musician, performing as a DJ under the name “Big Driis” and releasing several rap albums over the years.
Not content with that level of hyphenates, in 2017 he released the docuseries, Idris Elba: Fighter, chronicling his 12-months of training to become a kickboxer. He is currently 1-0, having defeated Dutch fighter Lionel Graves in his debut bout at age 44, according to The Mirror.
Elba runs the production company Green Door Pictures, which has produced projects like the Netflix series, Turn Up Charlie, and the forthcoming indie film, Concrete Cowboy. Despite the company partnering with Crunchyroll on Dantai, it has an overall deal to produce content for Apple TV+. Dhowre-Elba’s production company, Pink Towel Pictures, will also be involved with the anime series, but it is difficult to find information about it online.
