Since the brutal mauling of Bond’s closest friend and ally Felix Leiter in the 1989 film Licence To Kill, the Bond audience has failed to see the return of the best Bond ally of the series! Instead, in 1995’s GoldenEye, we met the arrogant Jack Wade who has seemingly replaced the once favoured Leiter. But now the time has come. A new era in the franchise should see the return of Felix Leiter!

Jack Wade in GoldenEye

Many Bond fans ask “why not?” and are angered by the new egotistical replacement in the form of Wade. I say forget Wade, bring back Felix! Jack Wade hasn’t exactly put his stamp and made an impact on the series, whereas if you look at the films Leiter has appeared in he quite clearly pulled his weight and was a worthy and regular member of the Bond canon. In fact, there is even a film dedicated to avenging his injury! If that’s not making an impact I don’t know what is.

Felix is a memorable character compared with Wade who only seems capable of showing off his weight in a Hawaiian shirt and the phrase “Yo, Jimbo!” Granted, Wade has only appeared in two films as opposed to Leiter’s seven, which gives him less time to make his mark. But seriously, Jack Lord made such an impact in Felix’s first appearance that he wanted the same fee as Connery for a second film, if he was to materialize again.

Along with the overweight belly from GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies, there just doesn’t seem to be the same sort of connection between Wade’s character and Bond, especially when compared to say the Roger Moore-David Hedison combination, or even the Timothy Dalton-David Hedison grouping. The two latter partnerships seemed to fuse perfectly with one and other; however, I fail to see a strong and decent relationship between Bond and Wade.

Felix Leiter in Dr. No

If one looks at the respective entrances from both CIA characters there are distinct differences. Firstly, when Bond meets Felix in Dr. No neither part each others side until Bond is on Dr No’s island. Surely their friendship must be quite close in order for this occurrence. Then in Thunderball, Felix follows Bond all around Nassau and there is that sturdy connection again between them, most notably when Felix becomes almost overawed by his friends appearance that he addresses him with the line “anything looks good in you.” Only a good friend would make a comment like that!

Now let’s compare their relationship with the Bond-Wade affiliation. When Bond meets Wade in GoldenEye, Bond is involved with Wade’s character for about two or three scenes in the rest of the entire film after parting at Zukovsky’s warehouse. They only meet up briefly in the Caribbean, which only allows our Wade to contribute another one of his “Yo, Jimbo’s,” and then not again until the final scene.

How can a screen relationship build strong ties like a Bond-Felix friendship when they only have less than a handful of scenes together? The audience just won’t buy it! The chemistry’s between them is just not present.

Felix Leiter in Licence to Kill

To Bond, Wade seems more like one of his girls that he just brushes off after a relationship. There is no request to work on assignment with Wade like in years gone by with Felix. In Tomorrow Never Dies, Wade seems a lot happier to see Bond than his counterpart. Wade’s “friendship” is unrequited. Nope, Wade is not even a close friend, so how can he be considered even a decent ally?!

The most important thing to note here is that you may struggle to find a “bond” between Wade and Bond but when you look at the relationship between Felix and 007, there’s no doubting a strong mutual respect and camaraderieFor this very reason, Felix must return, to a series that has lacked a decent ally for close to 16 years.

Article written by Adam Farrington-Williams (FelixLeiter)