We’ve lastly gotten our first look at IO Interactive’s new James Bond sport: 007: First Light. It’s an origin story of the notorious spy, displaying how he “earned the quantity” of 007.
To this point, the whole lot we’ve seen has been cinematic and story-focused, so there are nonetheless loads of questions lingering about how First Light will play, and who precisely this new Bond can be. Happily, I used to be capable of sit down with IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak at an IO Interactive occasion this weekend and grill him on the whole lot Bond. Whereas he wouldn’t inform me who they’d forged as the new Bond (the web thinks it’s Patrick Gibson, however Abrak says they’re “ready a bit” to disclose the forged), he did affirm that 007: First Light isn’t half of the movie canon; it’s a “standalone, reimagined interpretation.”
“I feel from the get-go that was extraordinarily necessary for us that we will put our fingerprints on this,” Abrak mentioned. “That is the first sport we’re making that isn’t our IP. IO is a artistic home that is created 5 authentic IPs and we’re doing the sixth IP on the Fantasy Undertaking [literally codenamed Project Fantasy] we’re engaged on as effectively. So we have now to pour one thing of ourselves into what we do.
“…It was such an enormous alternative to take such a beloved franchise after which a privilege to have the ability to pour our originality into that. And our take was, effectively, we needed to reimagine his turning into story. We needed to reimagine a coming-of-age, this younger man with all his quirkiness and optimism, his wits and his character. Getting launched to those intrigues and espionage, this harsh world of dog-eats-dog and the way he fares and the way he manages that along with his internal values.”
However even when the story itself is creating its personal canon impartial from the films, that doesn’t imply IO Interactive isn’t taking cues from the movie Bond. For one, Abrak mentioned he bought “some perception” into how movie Bonds are sometimes forged and what the movie administrators normally search for. However in the end, IO Interactive was left to its personal gadgets as to the way it needed to proceed on choosing a brand new Bond. And it did find yourself selecting an actual actor.
“It was a clean slate, which is a large privilege, that we are able to forged these folks or attempt to 3D-model one thing,” he mentioned. “Is it going to be an actor, or not, and what can we do? In order that was actually, actually daunting. I let you know this, it took a very long time, and we have been by way of a couple of fashions to determine what we needed. However I feel the course of was chaotic, to be trustworthy. I imply the course of was feeling it, making an attempt some issues out, feeling the emotional… And it isn’t essentially enormous A/B assessments on the market with rather a lot of businesses and whatnot. It was crucial for us to really feel his heat or allure, his quirkiness and all this stuff. However then we discovered somebody and we’re actually, actually completely satisfied about it immediately.”
We’ll be publishing our full interview with Abrak later this week, together with dialogue of not simply 007: First Light, but additionally the future of the Hitman franchise and upcoming IO Interactive-published sport MindsEye. We’ll hold ready to listen to extra about 007: First Light, together with gameplay, someday quickly. It launches in 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X and S, and Nintendo Swap 2.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You could find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Received a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.