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007 First Light is a star-studded take on Bond’s origins
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Alyssa Mercante
At an exclusive pre-Game Awards panel, IOI CEO Hakan Abrak stressed that, though the Bond connection is a natural fit for the assassin-game makers, you should expect a variety of gameplay styles, from “signature stealth and creative problem-solving” to “high-stakes espionage.” It’s, for the team, “the most ambitious project” they’ve ever done.
007 First Light players will grow with Bond in this fully reimagined origin story, and choose whether to attack the litany of grunts and occasional criminal masterminds with spycraft, combat, improv, or an arsenal of 007-style gadgets.
“Our goal was to make 007 First Light a true agent fantasy that feels like Bond even before he actually becomes 007,” Abrak explained. “In that, globetrotting is central to the experience.”
A brief trailer shows a dapper Bond in dappled sunlight, a more unkempt Bond hanging off a mountain’s edge, and even an inverted Bond, hanging upside-down by his feet over a pit of hungry female crocodiles. (Yes, Bond cracks a joke about them being women, and it’s funny.)
Like any good Bond flick, 007 First Light also has a colorful cast, from new takes on franchise faves like Moneypenny, M, and Q, to unique characters—two of whom are portrayed by Hollywood elites.
A trailer introducing Dr. Selina Tan shows a blurry figure of a woman standing behind a screen, fiddling with something on the other side. The camera slowly pans in as she assures Bond she’ll just be a moment. When she finally steps out from behind the screen, we see the instantly recognizable face of Gemma Chan (The Eternals), who trotted out on stage shortly after.
“It’s quite surreal,” Chan said of seeing herself in a video game for the first time ever. “I was really interested to see what they were going to do with the character. Seeing myself brought to life in that way is interesting.”
Dr. Tan is a key figure in Bond’s young career. Abrak says she helps shame him as a 00, challenging him and testing his instincts as the game progresses. The role was also a challenge for Chan, as it was unlike anything she had done before.
“With film and TV, you have sets, costumes, and other actors to talk to. When you’re doing a game, it’s just you on your own. You really gotta project yourself into the character,” Chan said. “But fundamentally it’s the same process. You’re thinking about the motion and timing and intention and what you want the audience to feel.”
Chan isn’t the only star to grace 007 First Light with their likeness and voice acting. Bond will also head to Aleph, Mauritania, and face off against its pirate king, Bawma. Bawma is all flair and fluidity—he’s introduced cloaked in shadow, monologuing about the greed plaguing Aleph before instructing one of his grunts to kick an apparently guilty party into the aforementioned pit of crocodiles. When he steps out into the light, it catches the gold scales on his broad-shouldered yellow suit and glistens on his bare chest. Then you realize it’s iconic singer Lenny Kravitz, who also spoke to the audience about his first-ever video game role.
“It’s very exciting. I’ve always been, since I grew up, a James Bond fan. I used to go to the movies, line up when the films came out, from the early ‘70s on up,” Kravitz said. “So when I got this call, I was intrigued. I said yes, and we went in and did this. It was so much fun and so interesting, and it's so incredible to see this character moving and living.”
Abrak said that Kravitz had the perfect creative energy for “the tone of 007 First Light,” and that the singer’s musicality was a natural fit. “There is something hypnotic about him,” Abrak said of Bawma—though as you look at Lenny Kravitz in person, you know the same could be said of him.
As for preparing for the role, Kravitz found it to be a natural fit. “It’s rhythm, emotion, pitch. Whether I’m recording music or this kind of thing, it all feels like music to me,” said Kravitz. And when someone mentioned how the fruits of his workout labor can be seen in Bawma’s body, Kravitz laughed. “That’s not a body double,” he said.
IO Interactive has historically pulled big-name celebs into Hitman, like Mads Mikkelsen (who is hilariously a Bond villain) and the recently released elusive target, Eminem. But 007 First Light does seem like a genuine attempt for the studio to take what it’s best known for and expand it in every direction, and for an entirely new group of players: Bond fans.
“The game is very Bond, and crucially very IOI,” Abrak said.
007 First Light releases on March 26, 2026 on the Epic Games Store.