When the Bond 25 cast was announced a while back, there was one name missing. Someone who survived the events of Spectre. Someone known as... Blofeld. And while rumors regarding the super-villain's return have swirled over the past several weeks, the past 24 hours have brought forth firm reports that two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz will, in fact, reprise his role, albeit in a somewhat different capacity.

See, The Guardian broke the news of Blofeld's return, but it was The Playlist who claimed that the character will function a bit like Hannibal Lecter in Bond 25, in that Lea Seydoux pulls a Clarice Starling and visits Blofeld in prison hoping to mine him for information about the film's main villain, played by Rami Malek. Will Blofeld help his old pal James Bond the way Lecter helped Clarice find Buffalo Bill, or will he rebuff all requests and force the world to live with the consequences?

Joining Waltz, Seydoux and 007 himself, Daniel Craig, are fellow Spectre stars Ralph Fiennes, Jeffrey Wright, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear and Naomie Harris, while Malek is joined by fellow franchise newcomers Ana De Armas, Lashana Lynch, David Dencik, Billy Magnussen and Dali Benssalah.

Cary Joji Fukunaga is directing from a script by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, while Scott Z. Burns came on for rewrites and Phoebe Waller-Bridge also had a hand in the script after creating acclaimed series such as Killing Eve and Fleabag. Production began in Jamaica before segueing to London, and eventually, the Bond 25 caravan will travel to Italy and Norway. There have already been several setbacks, as Craig broke an ankle and there was a crew member stabbed on set, while an explosion at a Pinewood Studios soundstage left another crew member injured.

Bond 25 will hit U.S. theaters on April 8, 2020, though it will arrive in the U.K. five days earlier, as is customary with this British franchise. The title and theme song artist have yet to be announced, and I'm pulling for The Rolling Stones to take a crack at the coveted gig.

Waltz, who inherited the iconic role of Blofeld from predecessors such as Donald Pleasance, Max von Sydow and Telly Savalas, recently starred Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron's Alita: Battle Angel. Spectre may not have been a great Bond movie, but Waltz made for a solid Blofeld, and I'm eager to see a new side of the character in Bond 25. Waltz is represented by ICM Partners.