People who spend their time endlessly debating who will be the next James Bond seem to have missed the point slightly. We already have one! It’s just not quite in the form you may have expected. While we’re still waiting for Denis Villeneuve and Amazon-MGM’s next pick to play 007, in the world of video games, we have the newest and youngest iteration of Bond so far.
Patrick Gibson will be appearing at the Side Quest Stage on Saturday, August 8 at 1pm for a panel that will discuss his work in 007 First Light (from IO Interactive), which is an origin story that follows a younger James Bond before he becomes the sexist, misogynistic dinosaur spy audiences know from the films and novels. Gibson has said he didn’t initially know he was auditioning for Bond, though the script sides gave him a clue. “There was talk of martinis in the audition sides that gave me an inkling,” Gibson said. “Although at that point I didn’t believe there was any way it could be that.”
Taking on Bond came with obvious pressure, and Gibson admitted that realizing the role was actually 007 “definitely tested my anxiety threshold.” Rather than being crushed by the size of it, though, 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,” Gibson said. “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.”
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
Who is ‘007 First Light’s Bond Inspired By?
The actor, who is also known for playing young Dexter Morgan in Dexter: Original Sin, 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?”
007 First Light is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox, with a Nintendo Switch 2 release expected later this summer. Gibson’s Side Quest Stage appearance takes place Saturday, August 8, at 1:00pm.
Released
May 27, 2026
ESRB
Teen / Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence, In-Game Purchases
