We have some new details, albeit vague details, regarding the villain in No Time to Die, aka James Bond 25. Much remains mysterious about the upcoming finale to Daniel Craig’s tenure as 007, but perhaps nothing more so than Rami Malek’s villain. Now, thanks to producer Barbara Broccoli, we know just a little more about the man who will be giving Bond a run for his money this time around.
Oscar-winner Rami Malek, who was recently seen as Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, as well as Mr. Robot season 4, is playing a character named Safin. Very little has been revealed about Safin, only in the official synopsis, which refers to him as a “mysterious villain, who’s armed with a dangerous new technology. This was revealed in a recent preview of 2020 movies and Barbara Broccoli, who is at the top of the food chain when it comes to the Bond franchise, described Safin as follows.
“We’ve thrown the book at him on this one. He is really the supervillain. He’s the one that really gets under Bond’s skin. He’s a nasty piece of work.”
For every great Bond, there must be great Bond villains. Daniel Craig will assuredly go down as one of the great actors to ever take on the role, even if not every one of his movies has been all together great. As far as villains go, it’s been something of a mixed bag. Casino Royale started out strong with Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre. Skyfall also benefitted from Javier Bardem’s Silva. Most recently, we had Christoph Waltz taking on the iconic Blofeld in Spectre. Yet, the way in which Blofeld was brought into the fold has been subject to scrutiny, as he was essentially put forth as the puppet master working behind-the-scenes to “author” all of Bond’s pain.
The plot for No Time to Die sees Bond living the semi-retired life in Jamaica before being pulled back into service by his old CIA buddy Felix (Jeffrey Wright). At which point, he’ll wind up crossing paths with Rami Malek’s Safin. Early on, even before Cary Fukunaga locked down the directing gig, rumors circulated that Bond 25’s villain would be blind. Given the lengthy and complicated development process, and extensive rewrites, it’s hard to know if that rumor has any weight to it anymore. Though, seeing a blind supervillain would be an interesting twist.
Related: No Time to Die Writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge Returning for James Bond 26?
Filming on the movie recently wrapped and the release date is creeping up rather quickly. With any luck, that means we’ll be getting a teaser trailer sooner rather than later, which also means we’ll be learning more about this villain who will send Craig’s Bond off into the sunset. No Time to Die is set to hit theaters on April 8, 2020. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as further details on the project are made available. This news comes to us via Empire.
