Ever since Christoph Waltz was announced as Spectre villain Franz Oberhauser, fan speculation has run wild about his true identity: 007's arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Now director Sam Mendes has addressed the question head-on (sort-of), telling the latest issue of Empire (which Mendes coincidentally guest-edited himself) that the character has been discussed at length by the Bond team.

Sony Pictures

Spectre embraces Bond movies past, but who's lurking in the shadows?

"The B-word! We talk about it all the time. It's the great figure from the Bond vault, as it were," Mendes said.

"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."

He added: "There's some big stuff the movie is moving towards. There are depth charges you hopefully don't see coming."

Sony Pictures

Everything you need to know about new 007 film Spectre

The filmmaker also took issue with fans demanding to know if Waltz is Blofeld before seeing the film.

Responding to the criticism over Star Trek Into Darkness's John Harrison/Khan reveal, Mendes said: "Why was there a backlash? There's a narrative as well. The naming of a character is part of a story.

"The audience cannot and should not be given - and I'm not confirming or denying anything - information that the characters do not have. 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."

All will be revealed when Spectre, starring Daniel Craig and Léa Seydoux, debuts in cinemas on October 26. Watch the trailer below:

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io