007 First Light is putting its own spin on James Bond, but not a Hitman spin

While IO Interactive has built a legacy on the exploits of Agent 47 and his cold-blooded killing ways in Hitman, it's not content with being a one-series studio. 

Years after its initial tease in 2020, IO's take on James Bond, titled 007 First Light, finally saw its first light of day just before Summer Game Fest. The IOI Showcase featured the upcoming James Bond origin story, not only diving into this new Bond, but also highlighting a few important characters he'll meet along the way. 

After the IOI Showcase, we had the opportunity to sit down with Martin Emborg, Cinematic and Narrative Director on 007 First Light for IO, and chat about taking on a franchise with such a long legacy, plus how the team plans to make this new 007 game stand on its own two feet and not turn it into another Hitman game. 
 

Shaken, not stirred

When asked what sets 007 apart from Agent 47, Emborg summarized his thoughts in one word: Character.

"It's a very character-driven experience," Emborg said. "In Hitman, the Grim Reaper walks into a room of people just living their lives, one of them has to die, and the player can then decide which path to take to make that happen. That pace doesn't match a Bond experience at all. We're making an action-adventure game, and all the momentum sits with the character of James Bond. It's a very character-driven experience."

This principle also applies when comparing IO's Bond to other versions of the secret agent. IO wants this James Bond to stand with Connery, Moore, Brosnan, Craig, and the rest. However, the team also acknowledges that they can't just ignore over six decades of lore—with movies and books and other media to consider—when making a game starring Bond. 

"Bond has been around for 62 years. It's a cross-generational thing. This is the first time my parents know what I'm doing," Emborg joked. "In a pop culture sense, Bond is in our blood. The history can't be blocked out, so we knew we couldn't stay away from it if we wanted to make this work."

That said, while the team did its due diligence while conceptualizing 007 First Light, they were not interested in simply taking the best parts of other Bond media and melding it together. "We didn't cherry-pick anything. Our goal was not to synthesize," Emborg said. "We want this to be contemporary, and we want it to be our version of it."
 

00-origins

The idea of a prequel Bond story appealed to Emborg and the team for many reasons, but a key motivator was filling in the gaps on how Bond becomes Bond in the first place. James Bond has many defining traits—the car he drives, the way he takes his drink, and so forth—but the universal question IO asked itself with 007 First Light is a simple one: How did Bond get to that point?

That's not to say that we'll be forming this new Bond from the very beginning, though. Emborg is quick to clarify that IO's version of James Bond is a strong, distinct take on the agent. As Emborg put it, "This isn't a 'vanilla' version of Bond."

In creating a unique approach to the James Bond character and story, IO runs the risk of Bond being too different from the established character and turning off longtime 007 fans from their vision. Emborg says that while that was certainly a consideration, there's more than enough here to endear this version of Bond to fans new and old. 

"There's so many things you'll be able to point to that will cater to super diehard Bond fans," Emborg said. "We'll have things where fans will say 'I know what that is' or 'I know why he's saying that.' But we also didn't want to have references get in the way of our story. Origin stories can quickly become obnoxious in that regard, and I do feel we avoided that feeling."

Even though the focus is on creating an original James Bond story from scratch, Emborg and his team acknowledge that creating any sort of story in a franchise as big as this one is a privilege. Sometimes, heralding a name like James Bond comes with massive hurdles, but Emborg doesn't think the team has had to deal with those. 

"There's a real passion from everyone involved in wanting to do James Bond justice," Emborg said. "Obviously, we want to take some big swings, and I've wondered if some people would be upset with some things we've tried—but it's actually been really cool. We're doing it, and it's great."

007 First Light is set to launch in 2026 on the Epic Games Store. Wishlist it today!