Following a lead to the Bahamas, he encounters Alex Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian) and his girlfriend, Solange (Catarina Morino). Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides to investigate, independently of MI6, in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell. Bond's first 007 mission takes him to Uganda, where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan). But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to '00' status. Gordon in 2022’s The Batman, Roebuck Wright in The French Dispatch, and Bernard Lowe in HBO’s Westworld.This movie introduces James Bond (Daniel Craig) before he holds his license to kill. Jeffrey Wright is a major Hollywood figure outside of James Bond. The two don’t share an easy chemistry, but there’s an obvious mutual respect that sells the dynamic. Rather, the actor exudes a somber intensity that meshes well with Craig’s own icy charisma. In keeping with the bleaker tone of Craig’s James Bond era, Wright doesn’t play Felix Leiter with the relaxed swagger of earlier iterations. He and Bond cross paths again in Quantum of Solace, and one final time in No Time to Die, where the character is mortally wounded by a CIA double agent and dies in Bond’s arms. Due the Craig era’s rebooted continuity, Casino Royale is able to show the two agents meeting for the first time, when Leiter agrees to bankroll Bond to keep him in the high-stakes card game. Jeffrey Wright broke a Bond franchise record by playing Felix Leiter three times during the Daniel Craig James Bond run. It’s worth examining the different portrayals, and what they say about the Felix Leiter character.

Indeed, Felix Leiter has been recast even more times than Bond himself. However, the James Bond film franchise has historically struggled with finding the right way to represent the character. Politically, it’s possible to read the dynamic as a representation of the “special relationship” the US and UK have always enjoyed. Leiter’s American identity distinguishes the character within the largely British gallery of James Bond’s allies.įrom a storytelling perspective, it’s interesting to introduce a counterpart to Bond, one whose own distinct national interests make him a separate character. The character’s name was borrowed from two of Fleming’s own friends, Ivar Felix Bruce and Oatsie Charles Leiter. The American secret agent first appeared in Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novel, “ Casino Royale”. Felix Leiter has been a part of the James Bond franchise for as long as the British secret agent himself, with numerous actors stepping in to play the role.

Casino royale 1954 spark notes