James Bond takes aim at a new Legendary deckbuilding game and trading card games next year

Bye bye, baccarat: James Bond is updating his card game of choice in 2019, as a new Legendary deckbuilding game and trading card games based on the big-screen secret agent gain a Licence to Kill.

The card games are coming out of Upper Deck, the publisher behind the Legendary series of deckbuilders based on everything from Aliens, Marvel and X-Files to Big Trouble in Little China, Firefly and Predator.

All we’re told about the upcoming James Bond Legendary game is that “players will be able to relive their favourite movie moments while working together to recruit their favourite characters and unravel the nefarious schemes of the most infamous 007 villains”.

At the very least, it sounds like the game will cover Bond’s entire history from Connery to Craig. The first images released of Upper Deck’s separate trading card sets based on the spy movie franchise back this up, showing screenshots of allies and villains like Pussy Galore, Jaws and Xenia Onatopp alongside Roger Moore’s 007, suggesting that the Legendary game could feature a similar art style closer to the still images used in X-Files rather than the stylised comic-book art of Alien.

The James Bond Legendary game will be released in summer 2019, while Upper Deck has confirmed its “multi-year” deal to make “new and unique” trading card games, potentially hinting at more to come for the tabletop.