Netflix Is Making a Live Action Assassin’s Creed TV Show

It is marketed as a “high-octane thriller centered on the secret war between two shadowy factions: one set on determining mankind’s future through control and manipulation, the other fighting to preserve free will.” Similar to the games’ overarching premise, the TV series will follow “characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity’s destiny.” 

Wiener and Patino said in a joint statement that they’ve been fans of Assassin’s Creed games since its release in 2007. They go on to say “beneath the scope, the spectacle, the parkour and the thrills is a baseline for the most essential kind of human story—about people searching for purpose, struggling with questions of identity and destiny and faith. It is about power and violence and sex and greed and vengeance. ​​But more than anything, this is a show about the value of human connection, across cultures, across time.” 

While an official age rating hasn’t been tagged onto the series, one might expect more mature themes since the games have players pulling off covert assassinations when not slicing up whole waves of enemies. This new series will be the first under an agreement made between Ubisoft and Netflix in 2020 to develop content based on the video game series. However, it will not be the first Ubisoft series to be on Netflix, as the animated series Splinter Cell: Deathwatch will be coming out this fall. Outside of Patino and Wiener, the show will be executive produced by Gerard Guillemot, Margaret Boykin, Austin Dill, and Matt O’ Toole. 

Given the places the game series has visited, ranging from the first Assassin’s Creed’s interpretation of the Holy Land in 1191 AD to 16th century Japan in this year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the live-action TV series has a lot of material to pull from. The TV series is also arriving during what could be considered a good time for video game adaptations in film and TV, as TV shows like HBO’s The Last of Us and movies like A Minecraft Movie and the Sonic series are finding huge success with audiences. As long as it can avoid the pitfalls of the series’ other foray into live action, fans old and new of Ubisoft’s massive franchise may have a TV series to look forward to in the future.