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Hitman dev hopes its new James Bond game Project 007 will spawn 'a big trilogy' building on the studio's '20-plus years of training for the agent fantasy'
IO Interactive, the developer behind the Hitman series, is aiming to create a James Bond trilogy with Project 007, focusing on a young Bond's origin story, and showcasing the studio's expertise in stealth action games.
Hitman developer IO Interactive hopes its elusive James Bond game Project 007 becomes a trilogy.
In an interview with IGN, IO Interactive boss Hakan Abrak shared precious few details about Project 007. The game was revealed all the way back in November 2020 and we still haven't seen anything beyond the teaser trailer that was shown at the time. Hell, the game still doesn't have an official title.
Despite its long development, Abrak said production is going "amazingly well" and that there's "a lot of cool stuff coming up." The project is being fully funded, developed, and published by IO Interactive itself, Abrak added. He also said the studio's considerable experience developing stealth games with the Hitman series, which began way back in 2000 with Hitman: Codename 47, makes him confident in its ability to tackle an original James Bond story.
"We absolutely feel like 20-plus years of training for the agent fantasy, creating an agent that travels the world and globetrotting whatnot, has given us some know-how on that," Abrak said. "But obviously James Bond is a different IP. It's a huge IP. It's not our IP. It's actually the first IP that is not our original IP from ground up".
Project 007 is a completely original story in the 007 franchise, which means, in Abrak's words, it isn't "a gamification of a movie." Instead, it tells the origin story of a young James Bond, giving IO the opportunity to create a new story that the studio hopes will be the start of a new series.
"It's completely beginning and becoming a story, hopefully for a big trilogy out there in the future," Abrak said. "And equally important and exciting, it's a new Bond. It's a Bond we built from ground up for gamers. It's extremely exciting with all the tradition and all the history there is there together to work on this together with the family of creating a young Bond for gamers; a Bond that the gamers can call their own and grow with."
The most recent Hitman game was developed and published by IO Interactive in 2021, and it's now working on both Project 007 and Project Fantasy, the online RPG it revealed last year. In July, we talked to IO Interactive's chief development officer about the state of the Hitman studio in 2024, including Project Fantasy, 007, and staying afloat in a tumultuous industry.