No Time to Die: Cary Fukunaga Says Rami Malek’s Safin is Bigger in Scale than Blofeld

November 4, 2020

In a recent interview with GQ, No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga opened up about the long-delayed Bond film’s villain Safin, revealing that Rami Malek’s mysterious character will be more dangerous and grander in scale compared to Christopher Waltz’s Blofeld in Spectre. Malek also described Safin as an unexpected antagonist for an action spy film because he is the type of villain that viewers would likely expect to see in horror thrillers.

“Once we got into Christoph Waltz/Blofeld territory, you can’t go small again,” Fukunaga said. “We had to think bigger. It’s tricky because you don’t want to make a cliché super villain, but you have to make someone that’s threatening not only to Bond and the people he loves but to the world at large.”

“(For Safin) I think about what would truly frighten us, what would send a real panic into our hearts. It’s that sense of dread that sets it apart,” Malek added.

In addition, the Oscar-winning actor also got the chance to address the popular fan theory that his character might be a new version of classic Bond villain Dr. No. Malek teased by neither confirming nor denying the rumor, “Yes. That’s interesting. I’m not going to bite on that, but I do think it’s interesting. They’ll just have to wait and see.”

Confirmed cast members returning for the film include Daniel Craig reprising his iconic role as James Bond for the last time, Ralph Fiennes as M, Lea Seydoux (Spectre), Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as A, with Rory Kinnear as Tanner and Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter. New cast members confirmed for the film include Dali Benssalah, Billy Magnussen, Ana De Armas, David Dencik, Lashana Lynch, and Rami Malek.

Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective) directs No Time to Die from a script written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, Scott Z. Burns with Fukunaga and Emmy winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Killing Eve).

EON Productions and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios have partnered with Universal Pictures on the worldwide release of the 25th James Bond film. The superspy’s previous outing, Spectre, opened in U.S. theaters on November 16, 2015. The film earned $200 million domestically and $680.6 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $880.7 million.

You can pick up Daniel Craig’s entire James Bond filmography here.

No Time to Die was due to hit theaters in the UK on April 3, 2020, and on April 10, 2020, in the US, followed by its original delay to November 12, 2020, but is now scheduled for worldwide debut on April 2, 2021.