A thread for the arch enemy of James Bond: Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Let’s discuss his impact, past, present and future with James Bond. Books, movies and even video games are welcome. I know we’ll see him again in the movies, properly with the next actor.
I’m thinking more and more that Tom Hiddleston would make for a decent Blofeld. He’s young enough to be a recurring character, and he could pull off the physical and business side of Blofeld. It all depends on his Loki future. I still like Peter Sarsgaard, and Oscar Isaac would be great as well. Maybe some of the popular candidates for Bond could work for Blofeld.
Also to all future versions of Blofeld: no name changes, personal connections to Bond or any MI6 characters, or hidden pasts. As for connection to other villains, make them SPECTRE villains, only. We don’t need to see certain other villains, like Goldfinger or Scaramanga be members, though. Other than building SPECTRE for a business purpose, there shouldn’t be much personal vendettas other than more or less for business. Basically, don’t do what EON did with Spectre in the last 2 films. Charlie Higson had some unique opinions on both movies. He should write a modern day Blofeld novel! If he writes his new backstory, don’t make it too personal!
A younger Blofeld, maybe even younger than Bond himself, would be interesting, challenging him in many ways.
Although, on second thought, it would made Bond look old again, a relic, and we went that road down before.
So, at least a Blofeld who is as old as Bond, someone who went another way, a successful business man who decided to cut corners again and again and then became a white collar criminal, getting away with everything because he is rich and famous.
Famous? Hmm. What if Blofeld actually were a kind of celebrity, not a shadow mastermind?
Could work. Would make Bond‘s work even more difficult.
I feel in some ways an older celebrity Blofeld could echo Elliot Carver, in a way. As for younger Blofeld, I still get bad feelings after Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor in Batman V Superman. Granted that was the writing, but a unique performance that should be studied on how not to write and portray certain iconic characters.
Best character in Gardeners books imho, is Blofeld’s daughter. Still think it should have been Bellucci revealed as Blofeld by killing OberFeld in Spectre.
So
Female, 50s, stunning and powerful actor - Penelope Cruz as Blofeld anyone or Dianne Kruger
I think Blofeld works best as someone older with years of experience in the underworld. Someone with mystery who commands authority and makes people shake. The Blofeld of FRWL was definitely that, and SPECTRE originally started down that road with Waltz during the board meeting with Hinx.
I love Blofeld and was thrilled he was brought back for Spectre and No Time to Die. While I did not care for the foster brother angle, I did like Waltz’s understated portrayal of him. Having said all that, I think both Blofeld and SPECTRE should be given a rest for the next actor’s tenure as Bond.
They can bring Blofeld and SPECTRE back for Bond #8. I would like to say I will look forward to that but I will likely be in my 70s - and I am trying not to think that far ahead these days.
Blofeld should be brought back in the novels before the movies, in my unique opinion. Separate from Ian Fleming’s timeline. Set in modern day. Quite a few of the authors that I mentioned on my continuation authors thread I think could pull it off, honestly. If Charlie Higson is writing Adult Bond for the long term, Blofeld will have an appearance. It seems likely, in my opinion. Dynamite Comics brought Blofeld, Mr. Big, Goldfinger and Oddjob back, it seems like he would follow in particular with Blofeld. In particular, after his strong criticism of No Time To Die. He also listed Blofeld and Irma Bunt as two of his favorite villains. I think he should write them in a modern day novel. He should be able to be trusted.
As for the movies, I see some unique choices and challenges for Blofeld. I think that Blofeld will be harder to cast, than to write, in the future. Even more tough than Bond himself. The character can truly improve in more ways than one. He can be done in the modern day, with a mixture of great acting and writing. I’d like to see Blofeld as a man who’s not afraid of doing his own dirty work. I’d like to also see Blofeld being purely a businessman. No personal grudges, he gets back at Bond for business purposes.
I strangely want to see his gold tooth from YOLT make an appearance as well.
As much as his choices were unique, he’s right: Bond should always fight Blofeld. The threat of Blofeld should always be there. It’s the equivalent of Lex Luthor for Superman, James Moriarty for Sherlock Holmes or SPECTRE itself being a Green Goblin for Spider-Man. It does feel right to me. EON (or a continuation novel author) should just plan it out better. In this day and age of the internet, it would be hard to keep a faceless Blofeld a secret. But I believe EON could and should do better than last time.
On a side note, I’m surprised that Blofeld never got his own thread. Especially on this site.
He was important for the novels and the first decade of the movies. Afterwards he became a tribute act, and the movies worked better with fresh antagonists in the following years.
In some ways, the Kevin McClory legal rights forced EON in particular to make some creative strengths in their villain department. I can respect that, for proving they didn’t need a villain and their organization for repeated business. That having been said, it does feel right for me that James Bond did have ONE villain for him to always keep an eye out for, in more ways than one.
Especially if you actually had to continue the Fleming timeline cleanly without rebooting, which is essentially the position Gardner was in. Blofeld was dead and if SPECTRE was going to endure it had to be someone else leading it. Which then begs the creative question if the organisation would continue after Blofeld’s demise, and if we should just move on with something else entirely. Stromberg and Drax can be powerful maniacs without having to be Blofeld or SPECTRE members.
But we all know that Stromberg and his organisation was clearly Blofeld and S.P.E.C.T.R.E. before it was changed, due to legal issues with McClory, shortly before filming began.
With the Blofeld and SPECTRE legal rights being fully settled a thought came to me. Could this be the sign (along with Dynamite Comics’ Agent of Spectre) that they will be used more often now? It seems that they are honoring Bond’s villain history. Why not use his archenemy, on a regular basis as a constant threat? It’s time that they got fixed up, and proved that they can be a modern threat, in any media.
Also, considering how many people have criticized the writing of Blofeld in SP and NTTD, a thought occurred to me. I think many bigger named directors that are also fans of the series will want to portray the character. However, this is because they know that they can truly do the character better. Goldfinger probably isn’t looked at in this way.