In recent years, we've been blessed with a lot of surprisingly competent adaptations of video game, especially in animation. A lot of these adaptations have come from Netflix, including Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Dragon's Dogma, Onimusha, Arcane and Castlevania.
Netflix also has live-action video game adaptations like The Witcher and Resident Evil. However, The Witcher has fallen out of favor with fans due to Henry Cavill's departure, and Resident Evil never had any love to begin with. Netflix is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get. The project could either be licensed to be distributed by Netflix (I.e, Arcane was produced by Riot Games and Fortiche) or made in-house (Resident Evil).
This brings us to the surprise announcement that a live-action Assassin's Creed TV series has been greenlit by Netflix, and has been in development for the past five years. Per Tudum, Roberto Patino (Westworld) and David Wiener (Halo) are the show's creators, showrunners, and executive producers. We're also given a logline that reads, "The series follows its characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity’s destiny."
The Assassin's Creed games allow you to play as various assassins throughout history, with a framing story set in the modern day. The logline suggests that the show will feature multiple historical periods, which sounds like a smart move. There's never really an "end" to the overarching narrative of Assassin's Creed, so if this series takes off, it could lay the groundwork for a cinematic franchise, perhaps in an anthology format.
Fans may be understandably skeptical of a live-action Assassin's Creed adaptation, especially at Netflix. However, joint statements from Roberto and David official some reassurance that this series will be faithful to the games and full of heart: "We’ve been fans of Assassin’s Creed since its release in 2007. Every day we work on this show, we come away excited and humbled by the possibilities that Assassin’s Creed opens to us." Though some would note the mixed fan reception to a show like Halo, Assassin's Creed has a lot more freedom and flexibility with its storytelling. There's no protagonist for the franchise, and it doesn't have to adhere to a plot already done in the games. We can probably bet we're getting a new story, or at least a new angle on something we're already familiar with.
"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," Roberto and Wiener continued. "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.”
In case anyone forgot, and I wouldn't blame you, an Assassin's Creed movie exists, one with a whopping 17% critic score and 55% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. In my review of The Old Guard 2, I said the movie was like a better version of that Assassin's Creed film, and now Netflix has the chance to give us the real thing. Funny how destiny works.
While Netflix gave no target release date (which is good, no rush), we could speculate that the new show will premiere in mid-to-late 2026.
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