No Time to Die star Rami Malek says his Bond villain is 'unsettling'

Rami Malek's Bond villain Safin may not have a license to kill — nor more than the one name, as far as we know — but in a just-released video the Oscar-winner reassures fans that his character will prove a worthy adversary for Daniel Craig's 007 in No Time to Die, which is set for release Nov. 20.

"What I really wanted from Safin was to make him unsettling," says Malek, "thinking of himself as being heroic...Safin is a formidable adversary. James Bond has to adapt to him."

"What he wants and what he's willing to do makes him a very frightening character, both personally to Bond, but also on a global level," says the film's director, Cary Joji Fukunaga, of Safin.

The writers on No Time to Die include Fleabag creator-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge who, Malek told EW in our cover story on the film, had considerable input on his character.

“She had quite an impact on what I was doing,” he said. “I’d have long phone conversations with her, giving her context as to what we were essentially looking for in the scenes, and she would turn things over incredibly quickly. We know her as a very witty and funny writer, but she’s got a knack for drama and tension as well.”

The cast of No Time to Die also includes cast also includes Lashana Lynch, Léa Seydoux, Jeffrey Wright, Rory Kinnear, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Christoph Waltz, Ana de Armas, Billy Magnussen, Dali Benssalah, and David Dencik.

Watch that new video, above.

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Related content:

• Watch the action-packed new trailer for No Time to Die
• No Time to Die cast gets lethal in EW’s cover shoot — see the photos
• Daniel Craig confirms he’s ‘done’ with James Bond franchise