There was a Lego James Bond pitch that never got made, presumably because of all the murder and sex involved with James Bond
A concept trailer for an abandoned Lego James Bond game has leaked online, and is currently being chased around by lawyers in a game of copyright whack-a-mole. The minute-long trailer, first shared on X but now mirrored across various platforms and easily findable, shows a selection of the different Bonds and recreations of some iconic and not-so-iconic scenes, such as when Roger Moore's stunt double danced across some crocodiles in Live and Let Die.
The Bond series is in one sense a fantastic fit for how Traveller's Tales approached the later Lego games. It has such a rich history, so many great characters and gadgets, and endless opportunities for big set-piece recreations. On the other hand, James Bond is most definitely adult entertainment: Each film features dozens of nameless goons being gunned down in the name of England and, depending on the entry, veers from knowingly salacious to outright smut. It's hard to imagine Lego ever signing off on a Lego version of Bond girl Honey Ryder, who emerges from the sea in a bikini in Dr. No (featured in this trailer), nevermind the likes of Pussy Galore.
The trailer's veracity was confirmed by former TT tech director Paul Hughes, who recalls seeing this back in the day as it was being worked on. It's claimed to have been found in an old Lego Dimensions build, which featured smaller self-contained worlds themed around a particular franchise, but the range of the pitch definitely feels a lot broader than a level pack.
"Blimey. I wonder how that got out," said 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. I don’t think that is the Final Cut, I seem to recall the classic Union Jack parachute being in there at the end. Could’ve been amazing…"
There are at least two versions of this trailer circulating, because one does indeed feature the Union Jack parachute. "Yeah, that's the puppy," said Hughes. "Alas NDAs (still!) prevent people 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... Oh well. I do have to say, man, how good were the TT cutscene department—they have got proper funny-bones."
We'll just have to console ourselves with IO's upcoming James Bond game, though lord knows when that's going to land. This is definitely one of those "what could've been" pitches, because while Bond and Lego are not the smoothest fit in the world when it comes to the themes, the nature of the Bond series and the nature of TT's Lego games would have meshed so well. Ultimately I suppose you can't really have the Lego brand on anything that has so much sex and violence, but… well, it would've been great.