With only a few weeks before the premiere of the new James Bond film, fans couldn't stop talking about the possibility that the new 007 villain in 'Spectre' is not who he says he is.
There have been several speculations on the true identity of Franz Oberhauser since the announcement that the villain will be played by the legendary Christoph Waltz. Due to the choice of such a talented actor and an ominous final trailer, many believe that Oberhauser is actually Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Blofeld has appeared in several 007 films and is known as the ultimate James Bond arch-nemesis. He has repeatedly tried to sabotage the spy and his face is usually not shown in the movies, just like Oberhauser.
So is Franz Oberhauser actually Ernst Stavro Blofeld's new identity?
'Spectre' director Sam Mendes recently spoke to Empire, where he finally addressed the 'Oberhauser is Blofeld' theory.
"The B-word! We talk about it all the time," Mendes said. "It's the great figure from the Bond vault, as it were. There was this big spectre hanging over the movie and the franchise, which is Blofeld, and what happened to the supervillain. That's all I'm going to say."
However, he also added, "There's some big stuff the movie is moving towards."
Why wouldn't Sam Mendes confirm anything about Oberhauser being Blofeld? The director said it had to do with the audience's narrative.
"The audience cannot and should not be given - and I'm not confirming or denying anything - information that the characters do not have," Mendes said. "And preserving tension in the narrative of a story that is a riff or an acknowledgement of the iconography of Bond over the years has been crucial. Otherwise you have taken an audience out of the narrative before it's even begun."
Find out if the true identity of Franz Oberhauser when 'Spectre' finally premieres on
