While Denis Villeneuve and Amazon MGM's next cinematic 007 pick remains unrevealed, gaming already has its own Bond iteration. Gibson's take is the newest, youngest, and perhaps boldest version of the character in the franchise's interactive form so far.
007 First Light and the Birmingham panel
Patrick Gibson will appear at the Side Quest Stage at MCM Birmingham Comic Con on Saturday, August 8, at 1:00 PM for a panel that will discuss his work on 007 First Light from IO Interactive. The game serves as an origin story that follows a younger James Bond before he becomes the seasoned spy audiences know from the films and novels.
007 First Light is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox, with a Nintendo Switch 2 release expected later this summer.
Auditioning for Bond without knowing it
Gibson has said he did not initially know he was auditioning for Bond, though details in the script sides pointed him toward the role.
There was talk of martinis in the audition sides that gave me an inkling. Although at that point I didn't believe there was any way it could be that.
Taking on Bond came with obvious pressure. Gibson admitted that realizing the role was actually 007 definitely tested his anxiety threshold. Rather than being crushed by the size of the role, he said the scale helped him push forward.
I think the enormity of the idea helped me. It felt so impossible as a dream that I was like, sure, may as well throw my hat in here. It felt so quintessentially Bond, that it was almost carrying me along. I went from wanting to portray a character I'd known, to suddenly feeling like I was actually becoming it a little more.
Who 007 First Light's Bond is built from
Gibson is also known for playing young Dexter Morgan in Dexter: Original Sin. For 007 First Light, he avoided copying any one previous Bond performance. Although Daniel Craig was the Bond he grew up with, Gibson said the exciting part was finding the character's core before the classic mythology fully formed.
The most exciting part was stripping away the experiences of the Bonds we've met in books and films and being left with the DNA of 'who is this person?' What ingredients existed before, that were perhaps nature rather than nurture?
