The director of the development team IO Interactive said that its next James Bond title (known by the working title Project 007) could be the first chapter of a trilogy.
Speaking to Danish media DR.dk, the studio director Hakan Abrak said his team created a “completely original story” for the game and that “a trilogy could come out of it.” In addition, the title of Project 007 will boast an unreleased version of James Bond, which therefore will not refer to any of the actors who have played the iconic British spy over the years.
Abrak also revealed how IO Interactive managed to convince the makers of the James Bond franchise, Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G Wilson, to let him make a game based on the character.
The Hitman producer says he spent most of the last two years preparing for a meeting with the two, aware that Broccoli specifically wasn’t satisfied with previous James Bond video games, saying they weren’t “worthy enough.” Of the IP, as well as being unnecessarily violent.
On the latter point, it is likely that it is a reference to how the previous video games based on the Bond series turned out to be shooters in which the player was called to take down an infinity of enemies. The portrayal of IO violence in the Hitman franchise, on the other hand, is much more subtle and elegant and is based primarily on the stealth factor, which no doubt helped the Danish studio get the license.
The IO Interactive development team recently released Hitman 3, the third installment of the World of Assassination trilogy. The title is already available from January 20 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC (exclusively on the Epic Games Store), Nintendo Switch, and Google Stadia.