Hitman studio IO Interactive hopes its upcoming James Bond game will be the start of a new trilogy

IO Interactive, best known for the iconic Hitman franchise, has stated that it hopes its upcoming 007 game will spark a new "big" trilogy starring a young James Bond.

The details:

• In 2020, the studio unveiled Project 007 with a CGI teaser trailer, referencing the gun barrel sequence that opens all of the film franchise's installments. While not much else has been revealed since the trailer, IO did confirm that it will be a "wholly original" storyline about the secret agent's origins.

• In a recent interview with IGN, IO CEO Hakan Abrak stated that the studio believes it has had "20 plus years of training for the agent fantasy" with the Hitman series, providing a solid foundation for the project. However, Abrak acknowledged that not only is it not an original IP, but it is also the developer's first foray into working on an existing IP. The studio also believes that the decision to create a new story could lead to a new Bond trilogy. “It's not a gamification of a movie," Abrak explained. "It's completely beginning and becoming a story, hopefully for a big trilogy out there in the future. And equally important and exciting, it's a new Bond. It's a Bond we built from the ground up for gamers.”

• Abrak went on to say that the lack of 007 games has been beneficial to the studio as it has not overexposed players to the series. Although some of EA's Bond titles, such as Nightfire and Agent Under Fire, have become fan favorites over the years, the CEO referred to Rare's GoldenEye 007 as a "classic," expressing hope that the new game will have a similar lasting impact. “I don’t want to speak too big about it, but I just hope we’ll do a thing that will define James Bond in gaming for years to come,” Abrak said, “And that is not only one game, but that we create a universe for gamers to own for many years to come that we can grow with that next to the Bond on the movies.”

• The CEO stated that development is going "amazingly well," and that fans will not have to wait long for more details if production continues as planned, with a "lot of cool stuff coming up."

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