By One of the worst kept secrets in film history was that Christoph Waltz was playing Blofed in Spectre. On the whole I thought they pretty much wasted a fantastic actor and performance for the film so I was excited when it was pretty obvious at the end that the story line would most likely continue into the next movie and Waltz would get a second chance. I was further encouraged by the recent news that the plot may play out a bit like On Her Majesty’s Secret Service since that has Blofeld in spades.
However, those hopes may be dashed. Waltz, in a brief interview, said he would not be returning to the role: “No, I’m sorry. I’m really sad, but that’s the tradition, that there is a new…name. Sorry. I would’ve liked to.”
Tradition? I assume he’s referring to the fact that a different actor has played Blofeld every time he’s appeared on screen. However, that’s less tradition and more the fact that Blofeld’s five appearances were often far apart or actors couldn’t return due to scheduling conflicts. It’s not some sacred rule or anything, and even if it was, Bond movies routinely break their own sacred rules.
My guess is that the studio is once again trying to surprise everyone and they’ve told Waltz to say he’s not involved. The movie doesn’t even have a director yet so it will be pretty easy to keep this secret for now. The other possibility is that they won’t be including Blofeld in this follow up, which seems a shame since they set so much up in the previous movie. Now, I didn’t really like a lot of what they did set up (adopted brother), but since it’s there I’d hope they finish it out with Craig’s last appearance.
