Bond 25: Rami Malek Reportedly Eyed to Play Villain

Published Dec 8, 2018

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True Detective helmer Cary Fukunaga at the controls. Daniel Craig is also on-board for his fifth go-around as 007.

When it comes to James Bond, creating a compelling main villain is, of course, a crucial element. Originally, it was thought that Bond 25 could feature the return of Christoph Waltz, who debuted in Wonder Woman actor Said Taghmaoui to play the main villain in his version of Bond 25, which he was writing along with John Hodge, but all that obviously went out the window when Boyle exited the project.

Now with franchise veterans Neil Purvis and Robert Wade back on board as writers, and with Fukunaga as director, Bond 25 goes back to square one in regard to the main villain. According to a report in Variety, Fukunaga and Eon Productions already had an idea for who they wanted to play the next Bond bad guy. Rami Malek reportedly was the name at the top of the list to be Daniel Craig's newest adversary with plans for world domination. However, Malek's Mr. Robot schedule got in the way and it is now considered unlikely that he will be able to shuffle things around and the Bond universe.

Bohemian Rhapsody Rami Malek (Freddie Mercury)

As for other Bond 25 casting news, it was recently revealed by Fukunaga that Lea Seydoux does not yet have a script, even though writers Purvis and Wade had reportedly completed a draft before Danny Boyle came on board and began re-writing everything.

While Malek may not be the first name that springs to mind when considering actors to play villains - given his resume of mostly good-guy characters - he has definitely shown a capacity for portraying darkness and insanity in Mr. Robot, where he has played the disturbed hacker Elliott for three seasons on Mr. Robot, with a earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody - it's likely Eon would be in a position of offering substantially more money to the actor even if schedules somehow worked out and he is able to sign on for Bond 25.