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A New Villain

By MI6 Staff

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Christoph Waltz will not be reprising his role as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Bond 25. The Austrian-German actor was originally announced to play Franz Oberhauser in 'SPECTRE', but would be later revealed as 007's ultimate nemesis.

Christoph Waltz as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in SPECTRE

Speaking on the red carpet at the Festa del Cinema di Roma on Thursday 26th October, Waltz confirmed to Italian movie news site Talky Movie that he would not be coming back. "No, I’m sorry," he said when asked about reprising his role as Blofeld. "I’m really sad, but that’s the tradition, that there is a new...name. Sorry. I would’ve liked to."

What Waltz may be referring to is the fact that no actor has ever played Blofeld more than once when the character is the lead villain in a Bond film. But Waltz confirming that he would not be coming back as Blofeld could mean one of two things: the character, whom Bond allowed to be arrested rather than killed at the end of 'SPECTRE', will be played by a different actor in Bond 25; or Blofeld will not be appearing in the new film and a different central villain will be used instead. Given the lengths recent films have taken to maintain continuity, it seems unlikely that Blofeld would be recast.

Back in September last year, Waltz said in an interview that he was not happy with his portrayal of Blofeld in 'SPECTRE'. "I cannot claim that I’ve really nailed Blofeld,” he said. “Overall, it held water and was okay. But it wasn’t what I’ve been looking for. I was searching for more inspiration. An actor can only be really good when there are shared possibilities."

It was previously understood that Waltz had an option to return to a future Bond film but only if Craig was still in the lead role. It is perhaps a little ironic that now the latter is confirmed, Waltz himself is out of the picture.