MGM has concluded a legal battle, allowing villains first introduced in Thunderball can be used in future movies.
Two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz is expected to play the classic villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Bond 24. Waltz was named as Daniel Craig's latest opponent earlier this month and, according to the Mail on Sunday, he will bring Blofeld back to the big-screen for the first time in three decades.
Christoph Waltz will reportedly play Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Bond 24
The news comes after the Bond franchise concluded a long-running legal case with the estate of Blofeld co-creator Kevin McClory in November last year. The move, which saw McClory's family sell its remaining stake in 007, allowed for rights to characters introduced in 1965's Thunderball to be used in future movies.
More: Blue is the Warmest Colour star Lea Seydoux reportedly cast as Bond girl
Enrst Stavro Blofeld is the best known of those villains having been portrayed by Donald Pleasence, Charles Gray, Telly Savalas and Max von Sydow, as well as inspiring Dr Evil in the Austin Power movies.
More: Daniel Craig quits The Whole Truth days before production start date
The Mail - who appear to have a source in the Bond 24 production - suggest Waltz will be introduced as a character called Franz Oberhauser, "son of the late Hans Oberhauser, a ski instructor who acted as a father figure to Bond" though will later be revealed to be Blofeld.
Max Von Sydow was the last actor to play Ernst Blofeld on the big screen
Bond 24 will once-again see Craig as 007, with Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris reprising their roles from Skyfall. Reports suggest that Blue is the Warmest Colour star Lea Seydoux will play one of the Bond girls.
Blofeld was "killed" in For Your Eyes Only though did appear in the unofficial Thunderball remake Never Say Never Again in 1983, being played by Von Sydow.
More: Sam Mendes back for Bond 24, though John Logan's return is key
Everyone is aware of the nation of Lilliput in Jonathan Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels', but what...
It's been nearly 30 years since the last live-action Tarzan movie, and yet it still...
When Lord John and Lady Greystoke found themselves stranded in strange jungle, their only instinct...
Who would've thought that a boy who grew up with apes in the jungle could...
For his latest adventure, James Bond mixes the personal drama of Skyfall with the vintage...
James Bond has never played by the rules, but this time he may have gone...
It seems James Bond's flighty career has all boiled down to this moment. He's in...
Picking up after the climactic battle at his childhood home of Skyfall Lodge and the...
Tim Burton combines his sunnier filmmaking style (Big Fish) with his more deranged impulses (Dark...
Margaret is an inspirational American painter desperate to sell her unique artwork depicting women and...
Like The Hangover, Horrible Bosses was a movie no one really wanted to see a...
In the wake of their struggle to murder their bosses in the first film, 'Horrible...
Having previously got involved with a scheme to kill their abusive bosses (a plan which...
Where the 2011 reboot felt effortless in the way it recaptured that warmly anarchic Muppets...