Oscar Winner Rami Malek Could Be Villain For Bond 25 & More Casting News

IMAGE VIA JORDAN STRAUSS/ INVISION/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bond 25 may have moved release date but production is expected to begin in the spring, so likely an April – June date, and casting is getting close to being sorted to join Daniel Craig’s final 007 outing.

According to Variety, producers are looking at securing recent Best Actor Oscar winner Rami Malek to star as the villain after previously thinking it couldn’t work with his schedule for the final season of Mr Robot. However, since meeting other talent producers have stayed firm on Malek working hard for months to make sure he can do both shoots.

Another role up for grabs is an American CIA agent described as “similar to Jeffrey Wright’s in past instalments” so could this be a new Felix Leiter? It would be a shame as Wright was good especially in Casino Royale and it would’ve been nice to see him return for Craig’s final Bond.

Plus if it was a new Felix, why wouldn’t they wait until Bond 26 with a new 007. However, I could be thinking way too hard about this and is a new character and sources are telling the US trade that Billy Magnussen is the number one choice to play the CIA operative that crosses paths with Bond throughout the film.

IMAGE VIA JENNA GREENE/ WWD.COM

Variety does stress that they don’t know if an actual offer has been made, but if Magnussen does join it would make sense as he’s already has a working relationship with Bond 25 writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga having recently starred in his Netflix series, Manic.

It seems Fukunaga really wants the 33-year-old has the most recent draft as the character has been written younger to fit Magnussen’s age.

Elsewhere, producers are on the search for two female leads, one is an MI6 agent and other being described as a bond girl similar to Olga Kurylenko in Quantum of Solace. As both female leads are open-ended with most recent chemistry reads with Craig still scheduled as the two characters will spend the most screen time with him.

As for the returning characters, Ralph Fiennes’ M and Moneypenny played Naomie Harris will be joined by Lea Seydoux reprising the role of Madeleine Swann.

Missing from this list is Ben Whishaw’s M and question marks will remain similar to Dave Bautista as Hinx. This is less likely to happen as the former WWE superstar is set to begin production on Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and both could be filming at the same time.

As stated at the top, the release date was recently moved from February 14 to April 8, 2020, as it’s believed positioning the 25th instalment of the series is better suited to a summer release.

Bond 25 will be released by Universal internationally and in the US by MGM and Annapurna new partnership United Artists Releasing label.