007 First Light has become the latest target of an online backlash, with some players calling the game “woke” because James Bond takes direct orders from M, played by Priyanga Burford. The complaint is odd given that Judi Dench played M in the Bond films from 1995 onward, appearing as Bond’s superior across seven movies.

007 First Light should have been discussed mainly as the long-awaited return of James Bond to video games. Developed by IO Interactive, the studio behind Hitman, it is the first major new Bond game in more than a decade, following 2012’s 007 Legends. The game follows a younger James Bond before he has earned his 00 status at MI6, telling an original story rather than directly adapting one of Ian Fleming’s novels or any of the films. For many players, that alone made it one of the most important Bond gaming releases in years.

The argument around the game, however, has shifted toward one very specific issue: Bond takes orders from M, and this version of M is played by Priyanga Burford. Some players have used that fact to brand 007 First Light “woke,” as if James Bond having a female superior were some unprecedented rupture with franchise history. It is not. Judi Dench first played M in the Pierce Brosnan-era GoldenEye in 1995, then continued in the role across seven films, including the Daniel Craig era, before bowing out in Skyfall.

A Female M Is Not a Break With Bond Tradition

That is what makes the latest backlash so thin. A female M is not new, not radical and not an invention of 007 First Light. Dench’s version of M was already a defining part of the modern Bond identity three decades ago. In GoldenEye, she famously undercut Bond’s old-world swagger by calling him a sexist, misogynist dinosaur and a relic of the Cold War. That did not destroy Bond. It sharpened him. It gave the franchise a superior who did not flatter him, did not fear him and did not treat his charm as an excuse for recklessness.

Priyanga Burford’s casting therefore continues a line that already exists inside Bond history. Burford is also not new to the Bond world, having previously appeared in No Time to Die as Dr. Symes. 007 First Light also reintroduces several familiar Bond figures in new forms. Patrick Gibson plays the young James Bond, Kiera Lester appears as Miss Moneypenny, Alastair Mackenzie plays Q, and Lennie James appears as Greenway, Bond’s mentor. In other words, the game is not cutting itself away from the franchise. It is rebuilding Bond’s world as an origin story for a new medium and generation.

IO Interactive’s Bond Is Younger, but Still Built From Classic Ingredients

The early reception to 007 First Light does not suggest a game collapsing under culture-war branding either. Reviews have praised its writing, close-quarters combat, cinematic pacing and IO Interactive’s ability to adapt some of its systemic design instincts to Bond’s world. The game is not simply a Hitman reskin. It is an action-adventure about a younger, still-forming agent who must gradually become the version of Bond audiences already know.

That also makes M’s role narratively useful. A younger Bond needs superiors and mentors who shape him, challenge him and give him something to push against. Whether M is played by a man or a woman is not the defining issue. The function of M has always been institutional authority: the person Bond answers to, even when he resists or disobeys orders. If that dynamic works, the character is doing the job. The gender of the actor does not suddenly turn a long-established Bond structure into a betrayal of the franchise.

The “woke” complaint therefore says more about the current online culture-war reflex than about Bond itself. It is fair to debate the writing, pacing, combat, mission design or whether IO Interactive has captured the right version of young James Bond. But the idea that a female M is somehow new is simply not serious. Bond crossed that bridge in GoldenEye, and Judi Dench made the role one of the most memorable parts of the modern film series. The real question around 007 First Light is not whether Bond can take orders from a woman. It is whether IO Interactive can use the game’s strong reception to build a new long-term future for James Bond in video games.

Source: Game Rant, GamingBible, Radio Times