The pre-production period of Bond 25 has been filled with “what ifs?” as so many different filmmakers and stars have been attached to the production over the past little wile. And now, here’s another one we can add to the list: Bohemian Rhapsody star Rami Malek was in the running for the role of the movie’s main villain.
Variety is reporting that the actor was being eyed for the part of the latest nemesis of Daniel Craig’s 007, though this seems to be in the past tense now. A major reason why it likely fell through is because Malek’s committed to filming the final season of hit TV show Mr. Robot from March to July. Seeing as Bond 25 goes before cameras in February, it’s clear that his busy schedule couldn’t account for both.
Previously, Wonder Woman star Said Taghmaoui revealed that he’d been approached to play the central villain of the movie back when Danny Boyle was still in the director’s chair. However, he was unclear if his involvement would continue with Cary Fukunaga taking over the reins. Given the news of Malek being chased for the part, that likely means Taghmaoui’s out of the running.
Assuming that both actors were up for the same character, we can deduce that Bond 25‘s antagonist is intended to be of Arabic ethnicity – Taghmaoui’s Moroccan while the American Malek is of Egyptian descent. Alternatively, this could just be a coincidence, as Taghmaoui would have been hired based on the screenplay from John Hodges while Malek would presumably have been playing a role from Robert Wade and Neal Purvis’ script.
Elsewhere, we can expect to see many familiar faces from the last few films, as all of the MI6 gang, including Ralph Fiennes’ M, Ben Whishaw’s Q, and Naomi Harris’ Eve Moneypenny will be back for more.
As we get ever closer to the production’s start date, expect some official casting announcements to be made in the next couple of months. For now, though, we know we can expect Bond 25 in cinemas on February 14th, 2020.
