Jeffrey Wright Says No Felix Leiter in BOND 23

Jeffrey Wright has played Bond's CIA agent ally Felix Leiter in both the Daniel Craig James Bond movies Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, but according to the character actor, he hasn't and doesn't expect to be called back for the Sam Mendes directed Bond 23. Speaking to Coming Soon out at the Toronto International Film Festival, Wright revealed that he hasn't yet got the call for a return, despite production kicking off in November. A little annoyingly the site doesn't have direct quotes, instead reporting;

While the character may not appear on screen in the new 007 movie, Wright did tell us that there's a possibility that Felix Leiter may be on the periphery and mentioned in the film.

Of course Leiter has always been the big anomaly of the Bond film universe, appearing 9 times in the 23 movie canon and has been played by over half a dozen different actors, all with radically different takes on the character and all varying in height/weight/ethnic background and demeanor. But it's this mysterious quality that makes the character so enduring and Quantum of Solace is actually a peculiar film in the Bond series as it uses Wright consecutively as the character, something that hadn't happened before. From the sounds of things, and of course plans could change dramatically as it won't be finished filming until next summer, he won't get the chance to make it a hat trick. Or maybe the producers just haven't bothered calling him yet, who knows? I do wonder though if the writers have struggled to find anything for Leiter to do in this one as we already know Miss Moneypenny is to return (Naomi Harris will play her) and one would think Q is a huge possibility for a comeback, maybe they just haven't found room to include him? Which is fine by me as Felix doesn't need to be in every Bond movie but let's keep our fingers crossed Wright gets to play him again sometime down the road.