The biggest James Bond news to break in a while broke this morning when MGM and Eon Films announced that the next film to feature the popular MI6 agent will hit theaters in two years time. The October 2015 release date has thrown Bond fans into frenzy as the major roles that need to be filled are starting to come together.

[RELATED: Bond 24 Gets an Official 2015 Release Date]

Daniel Craig signed a two picture deal after Skyfall to reprise his role as Bond two more times. The biggest creative question mark then became if Sam Mendes would return as director, and we got an answer to that question this morning as well. So with the Bond role filled, the director in place and a release date set, the next logical question is who will play the villain?

Bond films have long been weighted by the strength of their antagonist as the best films like Goldfinger, Casino Royale and Skyfall all had compelling villains to supplement everything else that went right. A bad Bond villain can sink a film — see A View To A Kill and Quantum of Solace as examples of this.

It takes a skilled actor to pull off a proper Bond bad guy and with the likes of Mendes and Craig returning to the film, it’s highly likely that we will see a big name actor fill the villainous shoes in Bond 24.

[READ: Idris Elba Says He’s Not Chasing James Bond Role]

Right now, the front runner and and favorite is Benedict Cumberbatch, who has final burst onto the scene with American audiences and is already well known over in England. Americans known him as Kahn in Star Trek: Into Darkness while Brits know him as Holmes in Sherlock on the BBC.

The hope is that everyone will get to know Cumberbatch equally as a Bond villain and the mere thought of him stepping into those shoes is exciting to imagine. He has the figure of a snobby British aristocrat who wold be behind some diabolical scheme, ala S.P.E.C.T.R.E., and he has displayed his ability to throw down on-screen action most recently in Star Trek.

We likely won’t know for some time who the the next bond baddy is going to be, but with the announcement of the new film, we are entering that fun period of time where speculation about a Bond villain is everything.