Daniel Craig is going to be James Bond for a little bit longer. While No Time to Die is set to be the swan song for the James Bond actor, at this point, it's anybody's guess when we'll actually see the movie in question. Originally set to release in April of this year, the film has now seen two significant delays due to the pandemic, resulting in it now being set to come out a full year later. One assumes that Craig is looking forward to seeing the end of the road, but it's possible that another No Time to Die actor might even more ready to be done with this movie even more as Rami Malek says his character was not one that was easy for him to deal with.
Not a great deal is known about the character being called Safin, who will be James Bond's primary antagonist in No Time to Die. Rami Malek actually gave GQ a bit of detail that starts to give us a look inside the head of the movie's big bad. But according to the actor, being in the character's head was a bit rough. It apparently wasn't easy for Malek to play a character that was quite so evil. According to the actor...
I think you start asking questions about what evil is. And with this character especially I find him fascinating because he can detach from empathy in order to meticulously carry out his will and I start to wrap myself up in who that person is psychologically. He's ruthless and that might be – I'm in danger of giving too much away here – a result of something that's happened to him. but even acknowledging that taps into the analytical side of him as well. I think the fact that he can still find a way to appreciate his own evil is something that is quite petrifying and psychologically something that was not easy for me to tap into.
James Bond villains have all sorts of motivations. Some just want to make themselves rich and/or powerful. Other's are looking to just burn everything down. It sounds like Safin falls more into this second category. And while there is apparently a reason why Safin has become the person that he is in the film, it doesn't necessarily make him more sympathetic. He's still very evil.
Rami Malek says tapping into that evil wasn't easy for him, but in the trailers for No Time to Die, he looks like he's done a pretty good job with it. Of course, there are a lot of questions we won't get answered until we actually see No Time to Die. While there was apparently a chance at one point that could have happened sooner than next spring, as the producers did investigate the possibility of moving the film to a streaming platform, those talks didn't really go anywhere, and now we just have to hope that the theatrical exhibition business is in better shape in sex more months.
