Fan Casting the Next Assassin in Netflix’s Live-Action Series

Netflix is finally giving the Assassin’s Creed series the green light for a live-action series. Announced in 2020 and already struggling with a revolving door of creative teams, the show has been plagued by delays. Now, the entertainment giant has confirmed they are going forward with the production and has set a directorial duo as showrunners.

Roberto Patino and David Wiener are the chosen ones, and both of them bring a wealth of experience and have good connections to Netflix. Patino’s most famous project is Sons of Anarchy, but he has done work on several other popular shows. Wiener previously ran a live-action Halo series for Paramount+ as well as having worked on AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead.

In their announcement, the duo spoke of how they were excited to show the narrative potential of the series, the intricacies of its game design, and the human drama within the philosophical and religious themes. The two showrunners are calling for not just an action-packed series with incredible world-building but also great character development and exploration of universal themes.

“We are thrilled to be a part of the Assassin’s Creed universe, a series we have both been huge fans of since its original 2007 release,” the duo stated. “Every day we’re in the writers’ room, we’re blown away by the scope of the world we’re in, and the fact that this universe is only as limited as our imaginations. The world-building and potential to tell big, impactful stories are unparalleled for us. But, above the high-stakes and the intrigue of the ages is an intensely human story that deals with questions of identity and purpose, faith and doubt, and the bonds that connect us through time.”

Assassin’s Creed: The Games

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed has been one of the top-selling video game franchises in history, first released in 2007 and continuing with numerous mainline entries and spin-offs in the 15 years since. The series takes players to several real-world locales and periods as they play as a new assassin character.

The original game was the first to utilize the “social stealth” mechanic that would define the series and had players aplay s a fictional assassin in the Holy Land during the Crusades. It was the trilogy set in Italy in the Renaissance era (Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations) that rade the series, though. The Italian games introduced Ezio Auditore, a fictionalized Italian who became an assassin. Audire was a fan-favorite character, and the series has seen numerous entries and spin-offs in his game alone.

The Assassin’s Creed series has 14 mainline games as of 2023, each one set in a different era and location. The Assassins range from playing a North American Native in the 18th century to the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy, a British agent during the Victorian Era, an Indian soldier in World War I, and even an Ancient Egyptian prince thousands of years ago. The series has continued to develop the gameplay into an expansive open-world RPG, and recently, players were transported to Ancient Greece, a Viking-era England, and even the 112th-centurySong Dynasty in China.

The latest mainline Assassin’s Creed game was Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, a direct sequel to the stand-alone Viking story Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Shadows was released in 2023 and took players to Japan for a fictional assassination tale set during the feudal era. The game received strong reviews in part due to its delay from the original window. Fans had expressed concerns about the release window. Ubisoft announced the game in late 2022, and were thankful when it did not ship as planned. This is the game world that the live-action series is believed to be adapting, although the gaming franchise has so many different stories that the specifics are still unknown.

The Plot of Assassin’s Creed

While many more details are still to come, it’s believed the series will likely follow the basic concept from the game: Modern-day individuals use a machine to relive their ancestors’ memories as an assassin and become embroiled in the centuries-long conflict between Assassins and Templars.

Expectations are mixed, but fans are very hopeful due to how much of a blank slate the series will be going into. The game adaptations will reference the plot of the original movie, which came out in 2016 and starred Michael Fassbender and featured Fassbender’s fictional character, Callum Lynch. The plot focused on Lynch and his genetically transferred memories of his ancestor in the early 19th-century Mediterranean. The film was met with generally negative reviews and performed well at the box office, but left little impact overall.

The project does come in a great time for video game adaptations. Netflix’s The Last of Us showed that video games could be good TV, and the world has been reapproaching the property in a serious way. For Netflix, in particular, it’s an excellent genre addition to a company that has invested heavily in sci-fi and fantasy. It’s also a way to offer diversity to a company known to offer a lack of diversity in casting and to tell different types of stories.

Assassin’s Creed’s film and television adaptation also has the tough task of balancing the massive number of characters, settings, and stories the video game offers. The video game franchise is a narrative juggernaut, crossing thousands of years and dozens of different characters with a modern-day framing device. The focus on one story at a time could be a double-edged sword, but does provide a more focused creative scope for a pilot.

Netflix has not said who is set to star in the series, but it s expected to come as another major addition to the company’s many fantasy and sci-fi projects that have become their bread and butter. No release date has been given, but production will begin sometime in 2024, and Ubisoft will still likely be as involved in the process as Netflix. Assassin’s Creed should make an exciting live-action show, but as with all adaptations, it will take time to assess if it will work out.