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007 First Light star responds after calls for him to lead the next James Bond film – and reveals how he "manifested" role

“I've been trying to manifest this since I was about nine.”

A photo of Patrick Gibson, wearing a dark jacket over a white top, smiling widely. Behind him, key art for 007 First Light.

Radio Times / IOI

Published: Monday, 18 May 2026 at 4:01 pm

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Irish actor Patrick Gibson, who you might recognise from Netflix’s Shadow and Bone, plays James Bond in the new video game 007 First Light. But could he take on the vacant movie role as 007 to boot?

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His co-star in the game, Lennie James, certainly thinks so. Speaking at the BAFTA Games Awards last month, he told Radio Times Gaming that Gibson is “fantastic in our version of Bond, and I genuinely think he should be a candidate for the main role that they're trying to find someone for".

“I’m sure he’s under consideration,” James added, as well as saying that "the people in control would be mad" not to look at Gibson for the Bond films.

At a press event for 007 First Light, we asked Patrick Gibson what he thinks of that praise from Lennie James.

“Big love to Lennie for that,” Gibson said, before promptly changing the topic. “I mean, honestly, to work with Lennie… I was already a big fan of his work, and when I heard that he was playing [mentor figure] Greenway, a new character in this, I was really excited.

Looping back to Lennie’s claim that Gibson should be considered for the films, Gibson added: “That was just really, very kind of him to say that.”

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While speaking to Gibson, we had to point out that his Twitter handle has always been Patrick Gibson Double 0, long before he got cast in this role. Was that a coincidence?

“I've been trying to manifest this since I was about nine,” Gibson explained, “and I thought that if I just put subtle hints out there…

“That's funny. I actually never thought about that. But there you go. The universe works in mysterious ways. Well spotted. I haven't killed two people, though.”

As for the casting process for the game, Gibson told us: “It was similar to the film and TV auditions I've done. I did two self tapes. And then we started to do chemistry reads with the rest of the ensemble cast.

"The final couple of rounds was two days of going in for a few hours at a time, and having many notes thrown at me, and trying to ignore that. There was, like, 100 people on a Zoom call.”

And how Gibson go about finding his version of Bond? In his words, “Oddly, it didn't feel dissimilar to previous things I’d done. What was important was to forget the canon or pop-culture nature of it.

“When you have iconic material and lines, there could almost be a temptation to pander to that. We were aiming to honour the DNA of this character, and that throughline that exists across all the media. It was always a surprise, what felt quintessentially Bond and what didn't.”

The launch of the game is very soon now, and we look forward to seeing how Gibson’s take on Bond chimes with audiences. Surely, if he is universally beloved in the role, he should at least get an audition for the movie version!

Read more:

007 First Light launches 27 May for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. You can order your copy now.

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Authors

Black and white cut-out portrait headshot of Rob Leane, smiling against a lime green background.

Rob LeaneGaming Editor

Rob Leane is the Gaming Editor at Radio Times, overseeing our coverage of the biggest games on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, mobile and VR. Rob works across our website, social media accounts and video channels, as well as producing our weekly gaming newsletter. He has previously worked at Den of Geek, Stealth Optional and Dennis Publishing.

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