007: First Light Isn’t Part of the James Bond Film Canon

We’ve finally gotten our first look at IO Interactive’s new James Bond game: 007: First Light. It’s an origin story of the infamous spy, showing how he “earned the number” of 007.

So far, everything we’ve seen has been cinematic and story-focused, so there are still plenty of questions lingering about how First Light will play, and who exactly this new Bond will be. Fortunately, I was able to sit down with IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak at an IO Interactive event this weekend and grill him on everything Bond. While he wouldn’t tell me who they had cast as the new Bond (the internet thinks it’s Patrick Gibson, but Abrak says they’re “waiting a bit” to reveal the cast), he did confirm that 007: First Light isn’t part of the film canon; it’s a “standalone, reimagined interpretation.”

“I think from the get-go that was extremely important for us that we will be able to put our fingerprints on this,” Abrak said. “This is the first game we are making that is not our IP. IO is a creative house that's created five original IPs and we are doing the sixth IP on the Fantasy Project [literally codenamed Project Fantasy] we're working on as well. So we have to pour something of ourselves into what we do.

“...It was such a huge opportunity to take such a beloved franchise and then a privilege to be able to pour our originality into that. And our take was, well, we wanted to reimagine his becoming story. We wanted to reimagine a coming-of-age, this young man with all his quirkiness and optimism, his wits and his personality. Getting introduced to these intrigues and espionage, this harsh world of dog-eats-dog and how he fares and how he manages that with his inner values.”

But even if the story itself is creating its own canon independent from the movies, that doesn’t mean IO Interactive isn’t taking cues from the film Bond. For one, Abrak said he got “some insight” into how film Bonds are typically cast and what the film directors usually look for. But ultimately, IO Interactive was left to its own devices as to how it wanted to proceed on selecting a new Bond. And it did end up picking a real actor.

“It was a blank slate, which is a huge privilege, that we can cast these people or try to 3D-model something," he said. "Is it going to be an actor, or not, and what do we do? So that was really, really daunting. I tell you this, it took a long time, and we've been through a few models to figure out what we wanted. But I think the process was chaotic, to be honest. I mean the process was feeling it, trying some things out, feeling the emotional... And it's not necessarily huge A/B tests out there with a lot of agencies and whatnot. It was very important for us to feel his warmth or charm, his quirkiness and all these things. But then we found someone and we’re really, really happy about it today.”

We’ll be publishing our full interview with Abrak later this week, including discussion of not just 007: First Light, but also the future of the Hitman franchise and upcoming IO Interactive-published game MindsEye. We’ll keep waiting to hear more about 007: First Light, including gameplay, sometime soon. It launches in 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.