007 First Light interview - discussing the women, the music, and the cars

Metro

22-07-2025

007 First Light – Bond is back (IO Interactive)
GameCentral speaks to Hitman makers IO Interactive about their upcoming new James Bond game and exactly how similar it'll be to the movies.
Project 007 was announced almost five years ago now and despite a debut trailer in June we still know very little about it, other than it's by Hitman developer IO Interactive and that it stars a young version of Bond, long before he became a 00 agent.
IO has promised to reveal more this summer, but the lack of information isn't as worrying as it might be. Given how much Hitman has referenced and paid homage to Bond over the years, IO already seem like a safe pair of hands.
It's a long time since they've done anything action-packed though, and storytelling has never been their strong point, but we were very encouraged after our recent talk with franchise director Jonathan Lacaille. We still haven't seen or played the game ourselves but so far he's saying all the right things, in what will hopefully be a Bond game to rival GoldenEye 007 itself.
GC: There have been a lot of Bond games over the year but the only of any real note could've easily featured any character and been just as good. So how have you approached the adaptation and how do you handle the very significant differences between video game and movie action and storytelling?
JL: I think we're leaning a lot on the pedigree of the studio and having worked on Hitman as a franchise for 20 years means that we've mastered that by now. [laughs] The spy fantasy, especially. It's not a secret that Bond has been an inspiration for Hitman. When we created a spy fantasy, we of course looked at the best out there and we have a lot of Bond fans in the studio, obviously.
After 20 years of working on that, we felt maybe we had a shot at pitching it. And the pitch, originally, was leaning a lot on what we do best. So the freedom of approach that you have when you approach a problem, the gadgets, blending in, trespassing, the stealth aspect as well…
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But that's not enough, because James Bond is not Agent 47 and we had to complete that fantasy and add a few more elements. When you're looking at a Hitman level, we expect the player to be quite patient, to count the seconds between the rounds of guards passing by, until they get their lunch, and then you can get past… It's a bit more slow paced.
We knew we could not do that with Bond, so we had a lot of work to do in terms of action, whether it's melee combat, ranged – shooting is not something we've really done in Hitman before. Because in Hitman, when you get to shooting you've basically failed the level; you've been discovered and that's it.
In Bond it's very different, you want to have a lot of forward momentum. We want always to keep the player quick on their feet and to think fast under pressure and to choose between different avenues very quickly. And that's how we've approached the design of the game.
To answer your question about cinematic action, the way we're approaching this is that the structure of the game… so you'll have moments that are inevitably more linear than others, because there is a specific time where we want to have some very cinematic action – a mix of gameplay, mix of cinematics – so there will be those moments that are very crafted.
There'll be some chases, where you have to run after someone, for instance, or a car chase. Things like that, that are a bit more linear. And then you have other moments in the game where you need to infiltrate an area and you have different options, different ways to make your way in. Whether it's charming a character, whether it's stealing a keycard, or jumping on a window or bluffing – it's too early to tell you how that works but it's something that we felt you had to have in a Bond game.
GC: Are the majority of action scenes linear and prescribed? Or are some of those more sandbox-y?
JL: When I talk about the linear action pieces you also have moments where you have what I would call an arena where you have a room, for instance, that you can approach in different ways, whether it's stealth or all guns blazing or you take down people one by one. There is some of that more open action as well.
That definitely looks like Q branch (IO Interactive)
GC: How do you approach the character of Bond? I feel if he's not a sexist, misogynist dinosaur there's really no point in doing a James Bond film or game. Because that is the character. But then again you don't want him to be mistaken for some awful manosphere type person. So how do you thread that needle? Because the more you shave off the rough edges, of any character, the blander and less interesting they become.
JL: It's a good question. It's rare to be able to work on a franchise that's being going for so long. That's been good for ages and adapted with its time. Whether you're talking about Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan they were dealing with things that felt very topical at those times, for the audience watching it. And that's the same thing we're gonna do in our game.
GC: I remember asking my mum about the sexism in the Connery films and she pointed out it was considered outrageous even at the time. Whereas I think nowadays a lot of people just assume that's how everyone carried on in the 60s.
JL: It's the Bond of the past that was made around a different time. And I think the Bond that we have today… he's still going to have interactions with women. [laughs]
GC: You laugh but that's quite unusual for a mainstream video game… to deal with sex in anything but the most oblique way. Does he seduce women and use his sex appeal?
JL: A big difference with our Bond is his age. He's 26. He's starting out, he's not even a 00, he's barely a recruit at MI6, so he doesn't have that confidence that you would have… he has some but he's not there yet, he's not the character that we know. He's still very different, he's a diamond in the rough.
There are some elements that you find, that lead to him become the character you know, for instance charm. He's a charming guy, he has charm in spades. He just doesn't really know how to weaponise it yet. Bluffing: he's trying, sometimes he's failing. But he will have romance, even though all that will be very new to him.
But will it be funny? (IO Interactive)
GC: For me the most important element of the films to get right is the sense of humour and the irreverence. Th British sense of humour is very different to to the Danish or French, and definitely from Americans. With Bond, it's not just one-liners, it's the whole tone of the films.
JL: I agree and, honestly, it's one of the pillars of the pitch. The characters need to be quintessentially British and there's a few things that help us get there. First of all, our narrative and cinematic director has always had a great relationship with MGM [the film studio that has always handled Bond and which Amazon bought in 2023 – GC] and one of the reasons that we landed the project is because they were seduced by his understanding of the franchise.
But to come to your point about the smaller things – which are big [laughs] – like banter and puns… jokes. I'm French, I can't come up with that stuff. [laughs] But I know exactly what you mean and we have English writers on the team, I mean we're based in Brighton! But even before we had IOI Brighton we had consultant writers based in the UK, to review all that content. And, of course, MGM are working very closely with us on the project.
GC: It's such a pleasure to play a game made in a different country, rather than the vast majority that are made by or for the US. I think of Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 just recently. It's not like Bond is vastly different from a stock American action film but there's those few degrees of difference that are all important.
JL: I completely understand your point and I think it's a very valid one and it's been in the minds of everyone here. The studio is European, we have a studio in the UK, so we are trying to be authentic.
Hitman doesn't get into car chases (IO Interactive)
GC: The other issue, and this is a more general one when adapting movies, is that even for a very action heavy film it's the still the character and dialogue that you remember the most. You can see it with the very formulaic Marvel films, where the script and actors are what makes the difference between a good or bad entry.
JL: The game is narrative driven. Its design is we're following the story very much. Every decision we make needs to bring the story forward. So whether you're playing in an arena or it's linear or driving or its shootout it's because of the story. So this is how the game is built. In terms of characters, they are the heart of everything, from Bond… there's a character arc, character development, from his first day to MI6 and his shot at being a 00.
It's the same for every character. They have a character arc as well. We had to think about what stage of life M would be, when Bond is just starting. We are introducing his mentor and they have a… cold relationship at first. I would say he's a father figure and he's a teenage son, a little bit. To describe it quickly.
Moneypenny… he often has Moneypenny in his ear, and they have a lot of chatter and they're building their relationship as they go. It starts formal and then gets more informal along the course of the game, as they build a friendship.
This looks a very Bond-esque location (IO Interactive)
GC: Of course, Bond didn't start in movies, he's a literary character. What can a game do with the character that the movies can't?
JL: A few things! One of the first things I would say is where we shoot! We're building everything digitally, so there are areas where recording a movie would be too dangerous and we may decide to bring you there in the game, because we can.
But, quite simply, based on the medium, we're putting the player in control and making them feel like Bond. And we need to make players feel as smart and as quick on their feet as James Bond would be. And it's a balance, not making it too easy and not making it too hard, but at the same time making them feel they are doing cool stuff and turning the odds in their favour. Because that's what Bond does, right?
GC: How close do you skew to the films? Will you have a theme tune and opening scene? Will there be an Austin Martin in it? Are you even allowed to do that stuff?
JL: The package needs to be like a Bond product, right? It's an original game, it's an original story, it's a young character… there's a lot of novelty in that sense. But there are pillars of this IP that you can't do without and it's been a while since Aston Martin was something that was attached to the IP, but we took a twist on it and… it may not be the DB5 that everyone is used to.
As songs go, you have the sonic branding, which is such a big pillar of Bond and we're working on music with our very talented audio director and there'll be some great things that we're cooking and are going to be revealed later.
GC: What's your favourite Bond film?
JL: I don't have one specifically, but I would say I love what they have done with the Daniel Craig saga – the character development over time.
GC: That's a funny way to say From Russia with Love, but okay!
JL: [laugh]
GC: OK, that's great. Thank you very much for your time.
JL: No problem at all, speak to you again soon.
Formats: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Price: TBA
Publisher: IO Interactive
Developer: IO Interactive
Release Date: 2026
Nobody does it better? (IO Interactive)
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