How IO Interactive Crafted Its Young Version Of James Bond
You know his name. Bond, James Bond. But who is the man behind one of the most infamous three-digit numbers in the world? That is the question IO Interactive needed to answer going into the development of 007 First Light, a game that tells the origin story of Agent 007. During our trip to IO Interactive’s Copenhagen headquarters for the latest issue of Game Informer‘s cover story, we sat down with the team to learn how they went about crafting a young version of James Bond.
007 First Light development took place during an unusual time for the James Bond film franchise; it’s been nearly 14 years since the last James Bond game, and there is currently no live-action James Bond actor, giving IO Interactive the opening to do what they wanted to do: craft their own original story starring their own original Bond. “It’s very important for us to have part of ourselves in the story and in the characters that we create, yet still being very respectful to the source material, to the IP,” game director and IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak says. “I don’t think we would have necessarily had the same energy and the same vision and the same results if we were to do a gamification of a movie. That freedom of creativity was very important to us, and we are so, so grateful for our partners that we’ve been given that opportunity.”
In adapting a new version of the iconic superspy, IO Interactive needed to walk a fine line between creating something new and distinct while honoring the legacy of one of the most iconic characters in pop culture. “Everyone knows Bond,” narrative and cinematic director Martin Emborg says. “It’s a generational thing by now: 63 years of movies, books from the ’50s… it’s huge. Everyone knows how he takes his drink, everyone knows what he drives, and what he wears. So, it’s really interesting to do an origin story. ‘Who is the character? Who is the man behind all this stuff?'”
But rather than drawing inspiration from iconic depictions like those of Connery, Brosnan, or Craig, IO wanted to examine the consistent attributes across all media, not just the films. Emborg tells me that as soon as he learned IO was making a Bond game about six and a half years ago, he went out and bought the box sets of the movies, books, and even read the comics.
“Bond is a character where there’s been versions of him through the decades,” Emborg says. “I think it’s not particularly helpful to look at how other people have interpreted the character. It’s better to look at the DNA and then say, ‘How are we making a contemporary version of this character?’ Obviously, yeah, you look at the movies [and books] – how could you not?”
Through this process, IO successfully drilled into what makes him James Bond, regardless of age. Then, the tricky part: How do you create an inexperienced version of a man whose experience defines him? IO Interactive tried to find what his most defining traits are and then envisioned how those would be expressed through youth. “I think his core traits that he’s born with are he has a lot of wits, he’s a very smart guy, he has guts, obviously,” Emborg says. “All these qualities are changed by the virtue of him being a young man. Wits, in this case, he’s a hungry mind. He’s whip-smart, but he doesn’t have that kind of experience. Yet, in terms of guts, you can definitely say, as a young man, he skews more reckless, whereas with a more seasoned 007, it’s a calculated risk. Yes, he will jump out of an airplane, but this guy does it just because that seems like the next best thing to do to catch the bad guys.”
Another quality IO Interactive identified in James Bond is a coldness that permeates many of his interactions. Though I get a glimpse of how IO’s Bond remains cool and collected under pressure during my hands-off demo, he doesn’t yet have a full grasp on how he comes across. “Our guy isn’t there yet, so I think, if anything, he has more heart in this version than he might have as a seasoned man,” Emborg says. “Charm – the quintessential Bond quality – he has in spades, but it’s not weaponized yet. An older Bond will use that tactically, and I think a younger Bond, maybe isn’t even aware that he’s projecting all this charm.”
To depict this version of Bond, IO Interactive cast Patrick Gibson, who most recently played a young version of Dexter Morgan in the Dexter prequel series, Original Sin. “He has a great youthful energy to him,” Emborg says. “He has a kind of built-in impatience, which is perfect for the character. Like, ‘Okay, what’s next? What are we doing now?’ But he also has a great gravity that he can tap into. He can get really insanely focused at the drop of a hat, which is really, really impressive. And then he has great comedic timing, and he’s just a lot of fun to be around. I think he checks all the boxes.”
We’ll have to wait and see how well IO Interactive’s version of James Bond pans out, but in our demo, he felt like a fitting transposition of the famous Bond attributes to a younger version of the character. Thankfully, we don’t have terribly long to wait, as 007 First Light arrives on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC on May 27. For more on 007 First Light and our other most anticipated games of 2026, be sure to check out our latest issue. If you’re a Game Informer subscriber, you can read the full issue right here.
