Now that Rami Malek has an Oscar, what will his career look like? He still has Mr. Robot, but on the movie side, it looks like his first post-Oscar role will be as the villain in Bond 25. In a double-report, Deadline stated that Malek and Lupita Nyong’o were both being pursued—it turns out Lupita will not be a Bond girl, but Malek will indeed be a Bond villain. Honestly, Lupita would make a GREAT Bond girl while simultaneously being too good for Bond (see also: Lea Seydoux). Even when they try, they never give Bond women a lot to do. In the current iteration, only Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd has been a fully realized person outside of her relationship with James Bond. So I’m not too bummed that Lupita isn’t going to be in this movie. She should wait for the Dev Patel Era anyway (ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES). As for Malek, he will be a GREAT Bond villain. He’s got the eyeballs for it.
I’m still holding out hope that Cary Fukanaga can pull something cool out with Bond 25, even though it does have the incredibly stupid working title “Shatterhand”, and that Daniel Craig’s last go-round isn’t a waste of everyone’s time. That they’re pursuing people like Malek and Nyong’o—even though that didn’t work out, it signals the type of actress they want for this movie and you can’t do better than Lupita’s cohort—is a kind of “pull out all the stops” move. Fresh off an Oscar, Malek’s profile is higher than ever, and so is his asking rate. I hope their willingness to be the ones to pay Malek’s new post-Oscar rate means they’re committed to making Bond 25 count. Daniel Craig’s tenure has been up and down, with every other movie being bad. The last one, Spectre, wasn’t great. The math says Bond 25 should be good. As long as they don’t call it “Shatterhand” for real, they’re off to good a start.
