The Xbox Partner Preview has premiered brand-new footage from 007: First Light, confirming something Bond fans have been speculating about for months: the Aston Martin Valhalla will appear in the game — fully realized, fully armed, and finally emerging from Q Branch’s shadows.
From the Stolen DBS to the Question of Bond’s Real Car
In the first trailer earlier this year, players met a young James Bond in a high-speed pursuit through the forests of Slovakia — behind the wheel of a vintage Aston Martin DBS. It looked every bit the classic Bond moment until IO Interactive gameplay showcase later revealed the twist: Bond hadn’t been assigned the car at all. He had taken it straight from the parking lot of the Grand Carpathian Hotel, meaning he was driving without Q’s guidance — and without any of the iconic gadgets fans associate with Bond’s rides.
The natural question followed:
If this wasn’t Bond’s real field car, what was Q actually preparing for him?
From a Covered Silhouette to a Full Reveal: The Valhalla Steps Into the Light
The first hint arrived months ago in the Reveal Trailer, where a car stood hidden beneath a cover in Q’s laboratory. Its low stance, forward-set cockpit and muscular rear shoulders immediately suggested a mid-engine layout — a rarity for Aston Martin. We noted at the time that the proportions looked strikingly similar to the Aston Martin Valhalla, and the new trailer now confirms that the silhouette we saw back then was exactly what it appeared to be.
The reveal doubles as a subtle nod to No Time To Die (2021), where the Valhalla appeared only briefly inside a wind-tunnel chamber during its early prototype phase. When filming began, no road-ready Valhalla existed — the car was still a design study. Aston Martin nevertheless built a drivable prototype specifically for the production, though it ultimately appears only as a static background element in the finished film. IO Interactive echoes that same visual language here: the turbine fan, the light across the carbon bodywork, the sense of an advanced prototype being readied for its next stage. It’s a moment that bridges Bond’s cinematic lineage with the interactive future IO Interactive is building.
Beyond its on-screen appearance, the Valhalla has a compelling real-world history. Originally unveiled as the AM-RB 003 concept — a radical hybrid hypercar created with Red Bull Racing — it marked Aston Martin’s move toward lighter, more aggressively aerodynamic engineering inspired by Formula 1. When the production version appeared in 2024, its wilder edges were refined with traditional headlights, a cleaner front end and a subtler integrated wing, while its defining mid-engine architecture remained untouched.
Limited to 999 units worldwide and priced at around one million euros, the Valhalla stands as one of the rarest and most exclusive Aston Martins ever built — the kind of machine usually reserved for billionaires, not trainees.
A Fully Armed Q-Car
In today’s trailer, Q — voiced by Alastair Mackenzie — finally introduces Bond to the Valhalla as a fully equipped field car. Even before Q’s enhancements come into play, the machine stands on its own as a formidable piece of engineering: a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, paired with three electric motors, supported by a dry-sump lubrication system, and built around a flat-plane crankshaft for razor-sharp response and race-inspired balance. It’s a package that already places the Valhalla far beyond the unmodified DBS Bond drove in Slovakia.
The way the car is armed also underlines how far we’ve come from classic Bond hardware. On earlier vehicles — the DBS included — weapons tended to be concealed behind the grille or headlights, ready to pop forward from the front. The Valhalla does something entirely different: its weapon system rises from a panel just behind the cockpit, swinging out to the side on an articulated arm. From there, Q reveals the specs: a gyrostabilized 7.62 mm machine-gun turret, capable of firing roughly 1,200 rounds per minute with an effective range of about 800 meters. It’s a fresh visual twist on a familiar Bond tradition — and unmistakably Q-Branch engineering.
“This one is only for 00 agents, James…” — Bond’s Path to Becoming 007
In the trailer, Q doesn’t mince words. The Valhalla is not a toy, not a prototype for display, and certainly not something a trainee can just take for a spin. “This one is only for 00 agents, James…” he says — a line that cuts straight to the heart of 007: First Light’s central theme: Bond must earn the status he is chasing.
As IO Interactive Art Director Rasmus Poulsen explained to us at Gamescom, the game features no RPG skill trees or perk systems. Bond’s progression is entirely story-driven: every ability, every upgrade and every tool is something he unlocks through the narrative. The soundtrack follows the same philosophy. Composed by The Flight, it blends a slate of new original tracks — potentially including a title theme by Lana Del Rey, according to an artist database — with classic Bond motifs spanning more than sixty years of musical history. Crucially, these iconic themes only appear once Bond has progressed far enough to “deserve” them.
More Than One Ride: A Growing James Bond Arsenal
On his path toward becoming 007, Bond won’t rely solely on the Valhalla. First Light features a broader selection of mission-ready vehicles — from the rugged Land Rover Defender 130, first seen at MI6’s training grounds, to the agile Triumph TF 250X, shown roaring to life in Q’s lab. These machines hint at the variety of challenges ahead of Bond long before he ever reaches the point where the Valhalla becomes an option.
Yet despite this wider arsenal, the question left hanging by the new trailer is the most intriguing one of all:
Will Bond truly earn the Valhalla as part of his transformation into 007… or will he once again take matters into his own hands — just as he slipped into Q’s DB10 and vanished into the night?
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