David Oyelowo has admitted it would have been weird if he had been asked to appear in the Spooks movie.
The actor made his name playing MI5 agent Danny Hunter in the hit BBC drama from 2002 to 2004, when his character was killed off.
Director Bharat Nalluri, who worked on the original series, is now making a spin-off movie Spooks: The Greater Good, starring Kit Harington, Jennifer Ehle, Lara Pulver and David Harewood.
Asked if he'd have liked to be in the film, David said: "Well Danny died, so that would have been a bit weird. The ghost of Danny maybe? But no, I knew I wouldn't make the cut.
"I was with Bharat Nalluri only a week ago, he was my director on Spooks and he's editing it as we speak, so I'm looking forward to seeing it."
David is currently winning critical acclaim for his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr in Selma, which opens in cinemas on Friday 6 February, and will next appear in a biopic about the singer Nina Simone, starring Zoe Saldana.
David said of Zoe: "She's a great, great actress. We had a great time doing that and I think that's going to be coming out some time this year."
