It’s a masterstroke of casting so perfect it has us wondering why Malek has never played a Bond villain before. Anyone who has seen his award-winning performance in Mr Robot knows that Malek has the inscrutable face and the ability to skew duplicitous that is required of a 007 baddie.

The James Bond franchise loves to dip into the well of Oscar-winners when searching for villains. Bond’s two most recent nemeses – Javier Bardem and Christoph Waltz – were plucked directly from the Academy Award winners podium and ushered straight onto a Bond film set. They barely had the chance to place their Oscar on a shelf before they had to go into treacherous scoundrel mode.

The same will be true for Malek, who on 25 April was confirmed to join the cast of the as-yet-untitled 25th Bond film (widely referred to as Bond 25). Daniel Craig is back for the last time as everyone’s favourite amoral assassin alongside Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as Q and Léa Seydoux as Bond girl Madeleine Swann. Captain Marvel’s Lashana Lynch and Blade Runner 2049’s Ana de Armas are taking on two major female roles, and the movie will film in London, Italy, Norway and Jamaica.

Also joining the film is Billy Magnussen, the hyper-charming American actor best known for his role in Game Night and, more recently, Velvet Buzzsaw. He’s going to play a CIA agent, which essentially means he’ll be sent in to float James Bond when he inevitably runs out of money and pick up the pieces after he runs amok in a glamorous foreign location.

Rami Malek’s first post-Oscars role is a masterstroke of perfect casting