ADVERTISEMENTWhile film fans continue to wait for an official announcement regarding the identity of the new James Bond and when the secret agent will be back on the big screen, gamers will be thrilled by the announcement of a new video game which hits consoles next year.
Developed and published by IO Interactive, the folks behind Hitman, 007 First Light just got its first trailer, which was released during PlayStation’s State of Play.
“This is Bond as you’ve never seen him before – the youngest Bond fans have ever met,” reads the description. “In 007 First Light, at only 26 years old, he isn’t the fully fledged 007 you know from the tux-and-martini days but a man with sharp instincts, sometimes reckless, who is still learning when to fight, when to bluff, and when to disappear into the shadows.”
The “completely original standalone story”, developed in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios, will see a young Bond earn his designation as 007 – much like he did at the start of Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s first outing as Bond.
The trailer sees M describe the young spy as “a bullet without a target” and assigns him a mission in hopes of giving Bond a sense of focus.
Check it out below:
The game was first announced in 2020 and a deeper look at 007 First Light‘s gameplay is set to be revealed this summer.
In 2021, IO CEO Hakan Abrak said: “It was very important for us that it wasn’t a movie adaptation. It’s not a game about a specific movie, where the story has already been told. Every Bond defines a generation and it’s amazing how they kept reinventing themselves over so many years.”
007 First Light will be the first James Bond game to release in 14 years. The last Bond title to launch was 2012’s poorly received 007 Legends, released to celebrate the iconic film series’ 50th anniversary.
Bond fans have already expressed their excitement for the new video game.
“I’m excited for this. I’ve got no doubt IOI can nail the infiltration gameplay and level design, hopefully they get the action elements right too,” wrote one fan, while another said: “James Bond has been so under-utilised for the last few generations. I’m so stoked to see 007 make a return.”
Others have been wondering whether the game reveal is a sign that things are speeding up for a cinematic announcement.
The next James Bond film – now under the creative control of Amazon – is apparently being fast-tracked, with rumours suggesting that the 26th adventure will hit cinemas by the end of 2027.
That means that when the next Bond film arrives, it will match the record for the longest wait for a new 007 since Sean Connery first played the British spy in 1962’s Dr No. The previous record was GoldenEye, which was released in 1995 – six years after Timothy Dalton appeared in Licence to Kill. The 2015-2021 pause between SPECTRE and No Time To Die already gave that record a run for its money, primarily due to the Covid pandemic which delayed the release of the film.
We already know that the 26th Bond film will be produced by Amy Pascal and David Heyman, and last month, we asked: Could Aaron Taylor-Johnson becoming Omega brand ambassador betheJames Bond confirmation we’ve all been waiting for?
The wait continues…
