As the release date draws near for No Time To Die, the 25th film in the James Bond series, MGM unveiled a new featurette narrated by director Cary Fukunaga that takes us behind-the-scenes of Daniel Craig‘s last turn as the British agent. While the film has had a troubled production, you won’t see any problems in the making of video, which expands on Fukunaga’s take on the character, specifically as it relates to Craig exiting the series:
“For me as a writer and director, it was essential to rediscover Bond,” Fukunaga says, indicating that we’re going to see a different shade to the character as a “wounded animal, struggling with his role as a 00.” There’s always been tension between Bond’s rogue personality and the acceptable methods of getting the job done, but it seems like that tension is being amped up in this film. Five years into retirement, “the people close to Bond, the ones he considers to be family, are at great risk.”
As for who’s targeting Bond, Fukunaga offers a purposefully vague description of Rami Malek’s villain who, so far, is only known as Safin. However, there is a persistent fan theory that Malek’s character is secretly the classic Bond villain Dr. No, and the theory’s subscribers need to hear Fukunaga hinting at a mystery behind Malek’s identity:
“Now there’s someone new out there. More dangerous than anyone [Bond] has ever encountered. And whoever they are is smarter and stronger than SPECTRE.”
As CinemaBlend notes, the previous installment hid that Christoph Waltz’s character was Blofeld by using a different name, so there is precedent for this move in the series. However, it probably helps if Malek isn’t “confused” by his character’s identity, which happened in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly:
I don’t even know what my character’s final name is in this movie. No, I’m pretty sure it’s Safin. It is.
Smooth, Rami. Real smooth.
You can watch the new No Time To Die featurette below:
(Via /Film, CinemaBlend, EW)
