James Bond Almost Infiltrated Gaming's Most Iconic Series
Pour out a Vesper Martini for this one.
The most iconic spy to ever grace the silver screen almost had a Lego game to call his own. A long-lost trailer for a Traveller’s Tales developed Lego game starring the womanizing, martini-swigging, MI-6 agent James Bond was leaked online over the week, offering a look at a canceled title that could have been a match made in heaven.
The 50-second trailer was first shared on X by the account @LegoGameMuseum over the holiday weekend. It features all of the Lego game staples, including hilarious spoofs on famous moments from the film, slapstick and animal-based humor, and action-packed Lego-based action.
The brief look at the project shows just how well-suited the property is for the Lego game treatment. The Bond franchise’s love of cars, daring action setpieces, and varied locations all make for fun-looking levels. The game would have also presumably starred multiple versions of the character, as mini-figurine versions of Timothy Dalton, Sean Connery, and Daniel Craig make appearances as the leading man.
Paul Hughes, a former tech director at Traveller’s Tales, confirms that the trailer is real on X. The game was ideated sometime during 2016, around the time Traveller’s Tales was winding down support for its toys-to-life game Lego Dimensions. The trailer was made by Traveller’s Tales’ cutscene team as a proof of concept pitch to the Lego Group, according to Hughes.
“I saw it when it was being made. As always there’s a story behind it. Suffice to say it never went into production. [...] Could’ve been amazing,” he tweeted. “Alas NDAs (still!) prevent people from talking about what it was/could've been. I always thought it would've been a total banger if it had happened with so much history behind it.”
The Lego Group turned down the idea because of the source material’s adult themes, according to the LegoGameMuseum.
“LEGO specifically were not happy with the violence and sexual innuendo,” LegoGameMuseum wrote on Reddit. “Characters called Pussy Galore and Plenty O'Tool wouldn't really work in a family-friendly LEGO game.”
Characters like Pussy Galore wouldn’t have gelled well with the family-friendly vibe of most Lego games.
It’s understandable why the project was axed. Developer Traveller’s Tales has made some wonderful platforming games using some of the biggest pop culture licenses, including Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. But the Lego games work as both a loving celebration of what makes these stories and characters special and as well as a family-friendly introduction to these popular properties. Losing the latter quality would limit the appeal of the game to children.
The Lego games are still going strong today keeping with these values. Most recently, Traveller’s Tales has experimented with applying the formula to video game properties. Last month, it released Lego Horizon Adventures, a Lego-fied version of PlayStation’s science fiction series.
The cancellation of a Lego James Bond may be a depressing development for fans of the books and long-running film series. But there’s plenty of hope looking to the future. Hitman developer IO Interactive is still hard at work on its James Bond 007 project. We know little about the game, other than it will be less about paying homage to films of the past, and instead focused on creating its own version of the iconic character.
