Aston Martin's new SUV is an absolute beast. The design of the Dreadnought – aggressive panels, huge LEDs, harsh angles – could rival Jaguar’s Type 00 for the most extreme evolution of a brand’s design aesthetic, but there’s a catch. You can't buy one. You can't test drive one. You can't spot one parked outside a fancy hotel in the Cotswolds waiting for Jeremy Clarkson to tut at it. Aston Martin's Dreadnought exists only in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and not in the real world.
Yet in its press release, Aston Martin says it is "unmistakably Aston Martin", which is where things get interesting. Because creating a fictional car is easy enough, creating one that still feels like it belongs to a very particular brand is a much harder design challenge.
What feels unique here is that the team at Aston Martin wasn't simply given permission to make the most outrageous vehicle imaginable, nor did it overload a current design with ‘gamesy stuff’. Instead, chief creative officer Marek Reichman says in a statement the designers approached the Dreadnought as if it were a real machine, imagining it driving through New York, tackling Mumbai's monsoon-soaked roads and behaving like a genuine Aston Martin before it ever became a digital asset.
Aston Martin, but its not real
That might sound slightly backwards – designing something that doesn't need to exist as though it does – but it's exactly how believable fictional worlds are created. The best concept art, from spaceships to fantasy cities, works because designers give imaginary things rules, history and purpose. It means Dreadnought carries plenty of the visual cues you'd expect from Aston Martin. There is the brand's Chiltern Green paint, Oxford Tan leather interior, carbon fibre detailing, and satin gold finishes, all wrapped around a vehicle that also has military-grade armour and a weapons storage compartment.
Even the sound matters, as Aston Martin has given the Dreadnought the roar of a V12 engine, because apparently even a fictional armoured SUV needs to announce its arrival properly.
It follows a growing trend of luxury brands using games as a new kind of design playground. Jaguar recently introduced its controversial Type 00 concept through 007 First Light, and seeing that dramatic new design language inside the world of James Bond gave the car a different context. Both follow in the tyre treads of past games that have featured real-world car brands, particularly Gran Turismo’s concept cars, as well as Forza Horizon 6.
Aston Martin has taken a different route from Jaguar and many others in the past. Rather than bringing an existing concept into a game, it has created something entirely new for one. The game engine has effectively become another concept studio, a place where designers can explore ideas that would never survive a production meeting, let alone a crash test. And that might be the most interesting thing about the Dreadnought. Despite having complete creative freedom, Aston Martin hasn't abandoned what makes its cars recognisable or what makes them feel like Aston Martins.
Drive the Dreadnought in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, releasing for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC on 23 October.
