Rami Malek still isn’t confirmed as a Bond villain, but we’re getting close (maybe)
By Josh Hill
We still don’t know who will be playing the next James Bond villain, but we may have gotten a big hint.
We may be one step closer to unmasking the next Bond villain — literally.
Set photos from the latest James Bond film have reached the interweb, and are being dissected to see if they tip a hand to who will be the next antagonist to enter 007’s rogue gallery. If you don’t want to dive too deep into spoiler territory, the set photos simply show a man in a white parka and busted up Phantom Of The Opera-eqsue white mask chasing a little girl through a desolate snowy Norwegian landscape.
It’s not really what this guy is doing that is of interest, it’s who he is.
According to what The Express gathered from the photos, no one notable is seen in the set photos. However, it doesn’t take a keen eye to notice that the man behind the mask looks an awful lot like Rami Malek (it’s not, but we’ll get to that).
Quick aside: the actor has a striking resemblance to Jon Berenthal, but it’s not him either.
As things currently stand, Malek is rumored to be playing the next Bond villain. There’s really nothing other than industry whispers to go off of, but it would make sense. Christoph Waltz landed a Bond villain role not long after catapulting his status by winning an Oscar and the Malek rumors heated up right after he won Best Actor for Bohemian Rhapsody.
Whether the man in the mask is simply a stunt double or something more plot-driven is totally unknown. The idea of a Bond villain hiding behind a broken mask — or having a Knight of Ren style cult of henchmen who do a similar thing — feels like the type of thing director Cary Joji Fukunaga would bring to the franchise.
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If nothing else, this is confirmation that the yet-to-be-titled Bond flick is finally starting production. So that’s a huge win in of itself. We have to wait until 2020 for the 25th film in the franchise to be released, but the hype train is finally leaving the station.