Dexter Fletcher was tapped to direct, then left the project. Bryan Singer took over, until he was fired late last year, with scant weeks of shooting left, for failing to show up on set. (Mr. Singer said he had to tend to one of his parents, who was ill.) He and Mr. Malek had also quarreled at times, which Mr. Malek was elusive about — “there were artistic differences,” he said — and that Mr. King scoffed at when asked. “You’re making a film at this level, there’s always tension,” Mr. King said. Mr. Fletcher ended up directing for the last leg of production, but, per Directors Guild of America rules, will not get a directing credit.

The reaction to the early trailers for the film has meant that the drama around it would not soon die. Glimpses of Mr. Malek’s sinuous embodiment of Mercury overlaid with the singer’s soaring voice left some fans in tears, while others fretted that Mercury’s queerness — he was closeted — might have been “straight-washed.” “It’s nothing we don’t address,” Mr. Malek said, “That’s another thing our film is good about. I don’t think it’s exploitative or salacious.”

Either way, the film will open to heaps of anticipation, with much of the weight resting on Mr. Malek, who had to work through conflicts of his own before throwing himself into the role.

Mr. Malek was born a twin — his brother, Sami, is younger by four minutes; they also have an older sister, Yasmine — to Egyptian immigrants, and grew up in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles, sheltered and largely unaware, he said, of the Hollywood that teemed beyond the Santa Monica Mountains. His parents dreamed of him becoming a lawyer, until a high school debate teacher told him he was more adept at dramatic interpretation than verbal sparring.