Christoph Waltz will return as Blofeld in Bond 25

The author of all of 007's pain is officially coming back.

We're about eight months away from the 25th Bond movie, and we still don't know what it's called. What we do know is that Daniel Craig is being rejoined by franchise returnees Ralph Fiennes, Lea Seydoux, Jeffrey Wright, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw and Rory Kinnear, as well as series newbies Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2047), Billy Magnussen (Game Night), while Oscar-winner Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) is on board as the new villain. For the longest time, it had been pretty much confirmed that two-time Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz wouldn't be returning as Blofeld, (aka SPOILERS! James Bond's adopted brother), who revealed himself to be the puppet-master behind all of the bad things that happened to Craig's Bond during Casino Royale, Quantum Of Solace, Skyfall, and his own big-screen debut in the role for 2015's Spectre. Well, in a very Blofeld-ian twist, it turns out that was all a smokescreen, as Variety have confirmed that Waltz will indeed be back for Bond 25. Quite how he'll tie in with Malek's new villain obviously isn't very clear yet, but we're extremely hopeful that director Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective, Maniac) and the movie's co-writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Killing Eve, Fleabag) will deliver us something very special. Bond 25 is set for release in Irish cinemas on 3 April 2020, and if you're interested at all, JOE had the opportunity to chat with Waltz earlier this year about his most-recent big-screen release, Alita: Battle Angel, and you can watch that interview in full right here: