Bohemian Rhapsody producer says 'no one' but Rami Malek was ever attached to play Freddie Mercury

While several names were floated, producer Graham King says 'no one was attached' to play Mercury until Ramek came along

Back when Bohemian Rhapsody was still in its infancy, rumours swirled as to who would play Queen frontman Freddie Mercury – including Sacha Baron Cohen who was first linked in 2010.

But one of the film’s producers says no one was ever actually attached to the movie apart from Rami Malek.

Producer Graham King gave more insight into how the biopic came together during a talk on Saturday at the Producers Guild Awards Nominees Breakfast.

Ben Wishaw’s name was then floated around as a possible replacement but nothing ever materialised and the part, of course, ultimately went to Malek, who won a Golden Globe for his performance.

“There was a lot of talk about different people playing Freddie Mercury and no one was actually signed to play Freddie Mercury, no one was attached to play Freddie Mercury until Rami Malek,” King said according to Variety.

“It was just a lot of talk — there was a couple of actors that wanted to play that role.”

The producer also gave more details about director Bryan Singer’s exit, explaining that there were 16 or 17 days of shooting remaining when Singer’s mother became “very sick”.

Singer, according to King, wanted to be able to focus his undivided attention on the biopic and considered going on hiatus.

“He just said, I want to hiatus the film, and deal with what he had going on in his life. And the studio wanted to finish the film,” King said.

“And of course, my job is to protect the film at any cost and that’s what I was there to do.”

Fox terminated Singer's contract, sources previously indicated to Variety, and director Dexter Fletcher was brought in to finish the biopic.