Spectre definitely surprised fans with the reveal that Christoph Waltz's villain was actually Blofeld, but the movie didn't do a lot with him, and there were later arguments that the iconic baddie had been wasted. While it certainly makes sense for the newer James Bond films to revisit the franchise's most iconic villains, is it too soon to now throw Dr. No into the mix?
That's one of the prevailing theories about Rami Malek's Safin in No Time to Die, and while director Cary Fukunaga chose his words carefully, he did tease the scale of the villain in a chat with GQ.
"Once we got into Christoph Waltz/Blofeld territory, you can’t go small again," the filmmaker teased. "We had to think bigger. It’s tricky because you don’t want to make a cliché supervillain, but you have to make someone that’s threatening not only to Bond and the people he loves but to the world at large."
Introducing Dr. No is certainly one way to top Blofeld, but when Malek himself was asked about the possibility, the Oscar-winner wasn't willing to give anything away. "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."
There are definitely some physical similarities between Malek and Joseph Wiseman (who played the titular villain in 1962's Dr. No), so this reveal wouldn't be a massive surprise.
Whether it's wise for Daniel Craig's time as James Bond to end with the reintroduction of Dr. No is hard to say, especially when that villain could have been used in the next series of movies.
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