Fanboys Anonymous

Every time a new James Bond film is in the works, speculation runs rampant for four aspects more than anything else: the title, the song, the girls, and the villains.

Currently, we're still in the dark about pretty much everything for the next installment in the 007 franchise. Bond 24 (working title, as it always is) has not announced a single official bit of news. However, if you are to believe the latest rumors, the title theme may be done by singer Sam Smith, French actress Léa Seydoux may be one of the Bond girls, and we may know who our villains are.

The story going around right now is that Dave Bautista (of WWE and Guardians of the Galaxy fame) may play the muscular henchman role, "Hinx", and Christoph Waltz (known best for his roles in Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained) could be the lead villain.

Just who is that villain? Franz Oberhauser—the son of the late Hans Oberhauser, who was a ski instructor and a father figure to 007. Or, as alternatively reported...ERNST STAVRO BLOFELD.

*Head explodes*

Blofeld is Bond's archenemy. He's the Joker to 007's Batman. Blofeld is the head (or "number one") of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. organization. For those that think Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division) is a mouthful, try "SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion" on for size. In the original Ian Fleming novels, Blofeld is one of the very few villains to live past one book and pop up multiple times. In fact, if you rule out Bond himself, Moneypenny, Q, M, Felix Leiter and a couple others, Blofeld is one of the few characters in general to appear several times in the series. As far as the movies go, he was seen (kind of—you didn't get to see more than his hand in some movies) in Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds are Forever and For Your Eyes Only, where he was finally killed off for good.

Now that the series has been rebooted, Bond fans have been wondering when the top terrorist cell would return. It seemed as though this is what we were building up to in Casino Royale, but we were derailed with the half-assed Quantum group in Quantum of Solace. [Side note: Why try to justify the title by naming the organization that, when you had a perfectly good scene to explain it already in the film with Mathis talking to Bond about getting over Vesper? He could have said the whole "quantum of solace" speech from the books there and you'd have a beautiful title with a lot more symbolism behind it instead of the shitty alternative that we got.]

When we last left the series, it was getting closer to its roots than it has been in years. We have Q and Moneypenny back in the mix and M's office is even restored to the pre-Brosnan era look. Could the trend continue with Blofeld and S.P.E.C.T.R.E. returning as well?

Keep in mind that at one point, Kevin Spacey was rumored to bring the role back to the big screen. When Ralph Fiennes was announced for Skyfall, fans jumped the gun and thought he would be playing Blofeld instead of the new M. So while the end of the last film has put the franchise back on the old track in a lot of ways, that doesn't necessarily mean that S.P.E.C.T.R.E. will be in this at all, let alone that Blofeld will make an appearance and be played by Christoph Waltz, who has not even been 100% confirmed to be in the film period.

But wouldn't it kick so much ass if this were true? Waltz has the gravitas to pull off this role in his sleep. He's amazing at portraying villains on screen, but Django Unchained proved that he has a likable charisma for a heroic role as well. If Blofeld is adapted in a way where he feels as though he's not necessarily the villain the first time we meet him, this could be a great origin story.

What do you think? Would you like to see Blofeld as the main villain of the next film? If so, is Christoph Waltz the man to cast or is there someone else better out there?