Mark Rylance will play a central part of the Olympics opening ceremony this summer, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The two-time Olivier award winner will reportedly perform the section of The Tempest that sparked the ceremony's "isles of wonder" concept. In act three, scene two of Shakespeare's play, Caliban explains the nature of the island to his drunken companions: "Be not afeard," he says, "the isle is full of noises."

In January, artistic director Danny Boyle said: "We'll be celebrating the whole of the country … There are so many isles of wonder."

Rylance, who was the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, has twice appeared in The Tempest, though he has never played Caliban. In 1982, he played the spirit Ariel for the RSC opposite Derek Jacobi's Prospero, before picking up Prospero's staff himself in a three-man Globe production in 2005.

For all the success of his star turn in Jerusalem on both sides of the Atlantic – where it won a Tony on Broadway – the event will undoubtedly be Rylance's biggest ever audience. One billion people are expected to watch the ceremony on 27 July, which will start with the ringing of Europe's largest bell. It will involve an estimated 12,000 performers and shares a budget of £81m with the closing ceremony.

Caliban's speech was also used to launch the World Shakespeare Festival this week. A video montage of actors and athletes speaking individual lines was released on Monday, the date accepted as the playwright's birthday. Actors including Simon Russell Beale and Adjoa Andoh performed alongside triple-jumper Jonathan Edwards and Paralympian Ade Adepitan.

Rylance will also be performing a selection of Shakespeare on the London Underground as part of Pop Up Shakespeare, one of the Cultural Olympiad's more playful events.