007's next outing finally has a working title, and it might be the strangest one that EON has come up with yet. Shooting on the next Bond film, reportedly under the working title Shatterhand, is set to start in April, according to a listing from Production Weekly from February 21st.
The title comes from an alias used by longtime Bond nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Ian Fleming's original novel You Only Live Twice, prompting the question that's been on many people's minds since Spectre opened to middling critical reception: is Christoph Waltz returning? He previously stated that he would be open for returning to the role if Daniel Craig would be involved as well, so there's a strong possibility that there might still be hope for the so far wasted villain yet.
Bond 25- er, Shatterhand- had its release date pushed back to April 2020 after supposedly extensive rewrites to the story and script were handled by Bourne Ultimatum and Contagion writer Scott Z. Burns. The next 007 adventure, reported to be Daniel Craig's final outing as the suave secret agent, is also being directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, who brought us gems from Netflix like Beasts of No Nation and the excellent limited series Maniac. With this kind of talent behind the scenes, I'm more excited than ever to see Craig's Bond back on the big screen again for one final hurrah.
-Wes Ball