James Bond meets a lot of interesting people during his adventures, but the long-running spy franchise makes sure to keep a select group of familiar faces for 007 to repeatedly interact with, like M, Q and Moneypenny. However, one face we haven't seen in a while is Felix Leiter, CIA operative and one of James' few friends. Played by Westworld star Jeffrey Wright in the Daniel Craig Bond films, Leiter was last seen in 2008's Quantum of Solace, but it's possible that the special agent may finally return for the still-untitled James Bond 25.
Jeffrey Wright recently posted the above photo on his social media accounts, showing Felix Leiter in action during Quantum of Solace. This immediately prompted speculation that Wright will reprise the "brother from Langley" for the next James Bond movie, but Wright didn't provide any other details in follow-up posts. With so little information to go off of regarding James Bond 25 right now, it may be a while until we receive confirmation one way or the other if Felix's long hiatus will come to an end.
Since the James Bond movie series began in 1962, Felix Leiter has appeared in nine movies; 10 if you count 1983's Never Say Never Again, which was a remake of Thunderball. Aside from David Hedison, Jeffrey Wright is the only other actor to play Felix in more than one movie. Wright's iteration of Felix was introduced in Casino Royale, where he took part in the high-stakes poker game that had James Bond and main antagonist Le Chiffre among its other players. Since Casino Royale served as a reboot, this marked James and Felix's first meeting, and fortunately, Felix was kind enough financially back James after he'd lost his earnings so that he could beat Le Chiffre, on the condition that Felix could take the evildoer into custody for the CIA. Felix returned in Quantum of Solace, and while earlier drafts had him in a more prominent role, the final version of the movie had him merely dropping welcome information to James and warning him about an impending attack on his life.
Few details have emerged about what to expect from James Bond's 25th movie. It hasn't even been confirmed yet whether or not Daniel Craig will reprise pop culture's most famous spy, although it was indicated last week he may stay aboard. It's also been reported that longtime James Bond screenwriters Neil Purvis and Robert Wade will return to pen the movie. Even though Jeffrey Wright has gone almost a decade without a James Bond appearance, he's been keeping himself busy with projects like The Hunger Games series, Boardwalk Empire, The Good Dinosaur and Westworld.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on how James Bond 25 is progressing as they come in.
