we Finally got our first look IO Interactive’s new James Bond game: 007: First Light. It is a story of the infamous spy origins, showing how he “gets the number” of 007.
So far, everything we’ve seen is cinematic and story-focused, so many questions still lingering about how the first light will play out and who this new bond will become. Luckily I was able to sit with IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak at this weekend’s IO Interactive Event and burn all my bonds to him. He didn’t tell me who threw them as a new bond ( The Internet thinks it’s Patrick Gibsonbut Ablack says they’re “waiting a bit” to reveal the cast), he confirmed 007: First Light is not part of the film Canon. It is an “independent, rethinked interpretation.”
“I think it was very important to us because it was so important to us. “This is not the first game we’re making. IO is a creative house that created five original IPSs and is doing the sixth IP in a fantasy project (literally). Codename Project Fantasy)We are also working on it. So we have to pour something of ourselves into our work.
“…It was such a beloved franchise, and it was a privilege to pour our originality into it. And our view wanted to be his story: how he manages it with his inner values.”
However, even if the story itself creates its own Canon, independent of the film, it does not mean that IO Interactive has not taken clues from the film Bond. For one thing, Ablack said he gained “some insight” into how film bonds are generally cast and what filmmakers usually want. But ultimately, IO Interactive was left to its own device on how to proceed with new bond selection. And that did You’ll have to choose the real actor.
“It’s a blank slate, and this is a huge privilege and you can try and cast these people or try to do 3D models,” he said. “Will it be an actor, isn’t it, and what will we do? It was really, really difficult. I say this to you, it took a long time, and we went through some models to figure out what we wanted. But I mean that the process felt it, felt some things, felt some things, felt some things, felt some things, felt some things, felt emotions… And it wasn’t necessarily the case. I found his warmth and charm, his strangeness, and all of this.
We will be releasing a full interview with Abrak later this week. This includes not only 007: First Light, but also the future of the Hitman franchise and the future of IO Interactive-Published Game Mindseye. 007: We’ll be waiting for more details on the first light, including gameplay. 2026 PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and S, and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter at Passthecontroller. You can find her posts at Bluesky @Duckvalentine.bsky.social. Do you have any tips for the story? Send to [email protected].
