More surprising than a hidden sword that strikes you in the dark Netflix announced a live action television series on Assassin’s creed, one of the most famous and acclaimed video game brands in history. The news is part of a very important association with Ubisoft, which also includes the creation of other projects and not just a TV show with real actors.

In this article we want to summarize what we have learned in the last hours (read here the sensational announcement of the Assassin’s Creed series on Netflix), but also try to imagine what the series could be like, and what adventures it could follow. tell.

nothing is real, everything is allowed

Or perhaps it would be appropriate to say that instead, it’s all real. The existence of a multimedia project linked to the saga of the hooded men had been in the air for years, and rumors about the presence of Netflix among companies willing to sink their claws into the franchise had become really insistent. However, the streaming giant’s plans in collaboration with Ubisoft also go beyond a simple live-action television series.

From international channels we have learned that Ubisoft Television aims to create a real one. television universe all dedicated to the adventures of the Brotherhood: the show with live actors will only be the spearhead of a franchise in expansion, since an animated series (probably of western development) is also planned and, according to the statements of Deadline, including an Assassin’s Creed anime, made by Japanese personnel.

Unfortunately, we know very little or nothing about these last two works. However, wanting to imagine the direction the production will unfold, we would like the Japanese TV series to be able to somehow deal with the franchise’s eastern counterpart, and perhaps dedicate itself to a story set in a Feudal japan, in Shao-Jun’s Renaissance China or in another setting of the Rising Sun.

Actually, it is not said that even at this juncture it is not possible to explore western settings, as happened with the manga adaptation of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla by the author of Vinland Saga.
On the American project, at least we hope to work on it. Powerhouse animation (the creators of Castlevania), which in terms of character design and animation quality could work really well with the Assassin’s Creed universe.

Adaptation or expansion?

However, it is on the live-action series that the eyes of all fans are focused, especially afterwards. the controversial film with Michael Fassbender, which, net of fluctuating quality, failed to gain control of the public despite the iconicity of Aguilar, the murderer of the Spanish Inquisition.
In any case, we know that Netflix is ​​currently looking for a writer, so we do not yet know some key elements to frame the ambitions of the production, such as the plot, the cast or the distribution plans. We are, therefore, totally in the field of hypotheses, but some quite valuable clues came to us from the very brief teaser trailer published by the streaming giant in these hours.

Netflix limited itself to broadcasting a video that showed the iconic symbol of the Brotherhood (the footprint of an eagle’s skull) with the platform’s logo in the center, and surprisingly with background music that fans know well: it is iconic Ezio’s family, the main trail of Assassin’s creed ii me Assasin’s creed Brotherhood, which over time became the mother soundtrack of the entire series. In short, the will to create a project in very strong continuity with videogames It appears to be from Netflix and Ubisoft, but at this point a really crucial question arises.

Is the TV series Assassin’s Creed a 1: 1 adaptation of video games? And if so, how will the exploits of the various Altair, Ezio, Connor, Edward, Arno, Jacob and Evie, Bayek and so on be proposed to us? Following this hypothesis, Netflix should work hard in terms of historical reconstructions, scenarios and above all casting. Regarding the latter, it would certainly not be easy to find a bed of actors who do justice to such iconic and well-recorded protagonists in the heart of the community.

In addition, always following this possible creative direction, we believe that the idea that Netflix and Ubisoft (following the example of the video game saga) can give life to an anthological series, with a season dedicated to each character and relative historical period. Therefore, it would be interesting, perhaps, to start from the chronological origins of the brand, and therefore from Ancient Greece (cradle of the Templar Order) and then from Ptolemaic Egypt, which gave rise to the Brotherhood, and then move on to the facts. Middle East and so Street. But such a project, as already mentioned, would require a huge job, in logistical and economic terms: The enormous variety of scenarios would force the company to continually move around the world and recruit a cast that each year should belong to always different ethnic groups, without forgetting the production of costumes, weapons and props in continuous evolution. A solution that, in terms of budget, would require a really important contribution, in which Ubisoft could also invest to guarantee the quality of the product and the fidelity to the source material.

However, there is also a second (and no less intriguing) hypothesis. That is to say the tv series may tell a different storyMaybe a prequel about existing protagonists or why not a totally new and original story. Manufacturers of Ubisoft Tilm and televisionon the other hand, for now they have only talked about “adaptation”, but also about “un careful transposition of the epic and electrifying entertainment of video game intellectual property, which may somehow deepen what fans have known so far“.

In truth, we wouldn’t mind creating a completely new protagonist, in the style of Fassbender’s Aguilar, and a unique story, deepened over several seasons. A solution that, compared to the previous hypothesis, would be even less expensive for production, but no less fascinating for this.

Obviously, everything can (and should) be canonical towards the mother saga, and perhaps close a plot left pending or even deepen some characters that appeared in video games. On the other hand, through the already consolidated multimedia expansion in novels and comics, Ubisoft has already shown that it is capable of implementing well (sometimes even exaggerating) the history of the video game with that of other media: this is the case of novels . in Altair or Edward Kenway, which deepen the youth of the two heroes, or the Juno sensational drift, whose narrative arc has left the shores of the video game to end in those of the official comics of the saga.