What is going on with the Assassin's Creed X Netflix Live Action Series
Prediction
2024 is nearing to its end and I was wondering what I'd like to see in relation to Assassin's Creed for this year besides the All-evident Assassin's Creed Shadows hitting the stores soon.
Well, I decided to boot up Netflix with my mug of freshly-made eggnog (Yes I do those and they're delicious) and for some reason I decided to re-watch the Official Movie which, in all honesty, is a good piece of media in my eyes specially in terms of Lore-expansion and Modern Day treatment which is on par with the darkness Abstergo Industries represents along the color palette of the movie further enhancing that hostile and rude mood.
It's incredible to think that the movie was released 8 years ago now and I still remember the premiere so vividly. So, what best time but now to do some backtracking and see what happened with the sequel and why we still have no word on the planned trilogy or Netflix Live-action adaptations for that matter, let's go back in time!
Assassins Creed: The Movie Trilogy
-"This is the sort of origin of his story. We have an idea of where he's going to go over the next two films". -Michael Fassbender.
Michael Fassbender during an interview on the future of the Movies with Cinema Blend in 2016.
According to Michael Fassbender in an interview hosted by Cinema Blend on the 16th of December 2016 a few days before the movie's official release, the Irish-German-born actor commented on the future of the Movie which by that point was already aiming for a trilogy stating -"We have an idea of where he's going to go over the next two films. We kind of did a three-film arc. We'll wait and see how people respond to this, but for sure, we have an idea of where he's going to go next". explaining the roadmap expected to follow if the budget somewhere between $130M and $200M was surpassed in terms of sales, which, never happened, the movie only roughly reaching $240M worldwide, enough for 20th Century Fox to remain silent on the matter, unfortunately these two sequels never seeing the light of day.
The mixed receptions however did not slow down Ubisoft's efforts though as prior to the movie's release in theaters the French company was already in the talks with Netflix to secure a slot in their streaming service for "Multiple Projects" among which an official Live-action series, Animated spin-offs produced by American film producer and screenwriter Adi Sankhar;
(DREDD, 2012), (Lone Survivor, 2013), (Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix, 2023), (Devil May Cry coming 2025) and Movie Sequels were planned to be developed until the 20th of March 2019 when Disney acquired Fox, restructuring the Studio and cancelling all projects tied to Assassin's Creed based on the movie's mixed reception and low box office takings.
Assassin's Creed Official Show x Netflix
Official Assassin's Creed Netflix TV Show logo.
It wasn't until 2020 that we as fans would get any kind of information on Ubisoft's decision to make the long awaited jump to TV show at the yearly Ubisoft Forward conference where it was announced that an official partership with Netflix was settled to bring a Live-action show based on the hit franchise with Jeb Stuart, known for "Die Hard" and "Vikings: Valhalla" appointed as the showrunner a year later after the announcement.
The river still followed its course without interruptions once again however and the raft was eventually lost at sea, Jeb Stuart quitting the project altogether in 2023 due to creative differences.
"I think it was a little bit of a move of executives from LA to London, and it allowed the London group who, unfortunately, had to inherit my vision of what it was instead of getting to develop their own vision. So I think that's fair. I know it's going to be great whenever it comes out. I think the Ubisoft guys are fantastic. I think it's a terrific franchise. It was just a good, mutual time to move on for both sides."
-Jeb Stuart during an interview with Collider, 2 January 2023.
As of now, further details about the Netflix series, including its release date and new showrunner, have not been announced. We'll just have to wait and see, possibly at the next Ubisoft Forward.
Also, it is important to keep in mind that Tencent is around the corner which may or may not put a halt to Assassin's Creed coming to TV at all in the future.
Happy New Year!
Image from our AC Netflix Community Fan Casting Article
About the Author
UbiCypher (Joe) is an Assassin's Creed Transmedia expert who works as the Lead Admin for the Isu_Network social media team!
He provides consistent social media content in the form of Assassin's Creed lore trivia, puzzles and news coverage, spending countless hours researching the series and real history.
He has also been working on an AC events timeline to help fans of the franchise looking to learn more about the lore.
UbiCypher (Joe)