Jeffrey Wright is very happy with James Bond and Felix's endings in NoTimeToDie. 'So I liked the way that we rounded it out, and what it did was celebrate the bond.'
Jeffrey Wright reveals that he is satisfied with the dual deaths of James Bond and Felix Leiter in No Time To Die. After numerous delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, No Time To Die finally hit theaters last October, serving as a goodbye to Daniel Craig's take on 007. The movie earned generally positive reviews from both audiences and critics and saw Bond take on Lyutsifer Safin , a bioterrorist trying to release a deadly plague upon the world.
In a franchise first, No Time To Die ended with the definitive death of Bond. After becoming infected with Safin's nanobot plague, Bond opts to stay on the villain's island compound and meet his doom at the hands of a barrage of MI6 missiles. Before Bond ultimately sacrifices himself, however, No Time To Die also sees the death of Wright's Felix, a CIA operative and friend to Bond.
"Well, Daniel and I had a nice run, and if he’s going to go out, we, in a sense, should go out together. So I liked the way that we rounded it out, and what it did was celebrate the bond — for lack of a better word — between the two characters, in a way that was appropriate." Although Felix wasn't in all of Craig's Bond movies, the two characters did clearly come to share a sort of friendship after first meeting in Casino Royale. Bond is – and always has been – a relatively solitary individual, and Felix represents one of the few people he actually seemed to be able to count on and connect with over the years. When Felix dies in No Time To Die, Bond essentially must say goodbye to the only friend he's ever had, which makes the moment especially touching.
Although mostly overshadowed by the death of Bond himself, both Felix and Bond's deaths do represent a killing of the old guard in a sense. With the introduction of characters like Nomi and Paloma, No Time To Die makes clear that Bond and Felix are part of a dying breed in many ways.