Rami Malek is officially Freddie Mercury
Well it’s official. Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek is Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury. Yeah, that’s right! The first official photo from the upcoming biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is already published and in it you can plainly see the actor, striking a very familiar pose. That of the late rock legend and singer of the rock band Queen- Freddie Mercury.
Directed by Bryan Singer, Bohemian Rhapsody will be a chronicle of the years leading up to Queen’s legendary appearance at the Live Aid (1985) concert in 1985. Sacha Baron Cohen was the original choice to play Freddie Mercury, but he left the project due to creative differences with the band’s guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor.
The original incarnation of this with Baron Cohen fell apart after May voiced upset after finding that the project would only be a biopic of Freddie Mercury & not the rest of Queen. May felt that it should focus on the other members and the aftermath of Mercury’s death. He also voiced his negative opinion of the casting choice of Baron Cohen, whom he felt was too much of a comedic actor who wouldn’t do Mercury justice in drama.
Bohemian Rhapsody is out on December 25, 2018.
Before Rami Malek was cast, Ben Whishaw and Daniel Radcliffe were linked in the media to playing Freddie Mercury, and besides Malek, actors like Joseph Mazzello, Allen Leech, Ben Hardy, Gwilym Lee were added to the cast.
Freddie Mercury died on 24 November 1991, from AIDS related complications, back when the disease was relatively unknown and stigmatized. He was 45 years old.
Check out Rami in the role of Freddie Mercury. Photo courtesy of EW.
