IO Interactive would like to reintroduce you to the man who needs no introduction. Next to Godzilla, James Bond is one of pop culture’s longest running film franchises. From Sean Connery to Timothy Dalton to Daniel Craig, there’s been many iterations of the swaggering international super spy but none that showcase his humble beginnings until now.
In 007 First Light, the 20-something year old James Bond (Patrick Gibson) falls headfirst into the world of espionage after working with MI6 in a dangerous hostage situation in Iceland. Intrigued by the world of espionage, Bond finds an unexpected ally in M (Priyanga Burford), who sees his potential as an agent capable of taking control in messy situations by leaning into his instinctive and improvisational style. When Bond meets John Greenway (Lennie James), a former 00 agent, who oversees the new training program, the pair must learn to work together despite the latter’s stricter philosophy about what constitutes the perfect agent to stop a rogue 009 British operative. The pursuit takes Bond across the world, from Slovakia to the dangerous black market of Aleph, ruled by the temperamental Bawma (Lenny Kravitz).
Here, IO’s cinematics and narrative director Martin Emborg speaks with Deadline during a two-hour gameplay preview event.
DEADLINE: It’s been about 14 years since the last James Bond game. How has gaming changed in that time?
MARTIN EMBORG: Quite a lot. [Laughs.] It’s definitely matured. It’s coming into its own a little more in terms of it being where it sits in the pantheon of entertainment, as it were. I do think that film and games are both circling each other. And to some extent, that’s what we’re also leveraging here in 007 First Light. We’re very much working on this title in a very movie-like setup with writing, actors and cinematography. We don’t think of this much as a game in that sense.
DEADLINE: How has the IP of James Bond changed in that time?
EMBORG: I find that most of the games before, they tended to synthesize the character of James Bond and stay on some of those surface level qualities like, well, he drinks a martini, and he wears a tuxedo and has a woman on his arm. To some extent that misses the point a little bit because there’s more to him than that. And so, we’ve tried to really make this [game] a character study of what are the makings of a young man that can become 007 and what will that journey look like? So, we start by putting him through hell to reveal his core qualities. [Laughs.] And we, very early on in the game, we witnessed that he’s someone who never, ever gives up and always is ready to do the next thing, even if it puts his own life in the balance.
DEADLINE: There’s a wealth of James Bond resources. But where did you all draw your inspirations to tell this origin story?
EMBORG: We immersed ourselves in everything Bond available anywhere. But we did quickly end on Ian Fleming because the novels are where he comes from, and the novels are ground zero for all the interpretations that’s been made over the decades. It’s the only appropriate place to go and look to find the “truth of who he is.” I found myself very intrigued by Moonraker because it’s been filmed a few times and those films are very different from the book. But I found that I could quite easily see a Craig version, for instance, of the Moonraker book. He’s very close to the Fleming version as is Sean Connery. But it was interesting to find that through all of the Bond films and media, it’s seen through the lens of the makers who put their individual stamps on them. So, I put a new focus on the fact that it was now our lens to look at the original DNA of this character to make this.
DEADLINE: What was the most challenging aspect of putting this game together?
EMBORG: I think finding the voice of Bond through writing. The Bond universe is elevated. So there was a lot of trial and error, but we had to apply ourselves to land on the tone which is not a clear shot thing. It ended up being about tonal alchemy, you know that’s it when you have it. And then when we started recording with Patrick Gibson, he could make this script work. We were like, “That’ll never work.” We’d write some jokes, but he’d make them work, which was great. And then there was some other stuff where it was like, “This feels stilted.” So, it’s about finding a sense of elevated realism to it because it’s very important that he’s grounded. For an origin story, you need to believe that he exists in this universe and that it isn’t just all quips and winks.
DEADLINE: Speaking of your voice cast you also have Lennie James, Gemma Chan and Lenny Kravitz.
EMBORG: I can’t overestimate how much these great actors bring to the experience. Their instincts, the questions that you get, you realize very quickly that for one thing, I have to up my game, but there’s nothing better than having worked and toiled in the writer’s room, bringing those pages to set and then they have a reading you didn’t expect and it just hits. That’s really gratifying. You’d just get goosebumps from just watching them when we would [have them dressed up in their mocap suits.]
DEADLINE: What are you most excited for people to experience when they play?
EMBORG: I’m just hoping that people really connect to the characters and the actors’ performances as much as we do.
007 First Light launches for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S May May 27. A version for the Nintendo Switch 2 is currently in development with no release date yet given.
