Ubisoft has tapped into its vault of iconic IPs and is turning its legendary Assassin’s Creed franchise into a new Netflix live-action TV series. It’s a wonderful time for video game adaptations and the ever-growing race of video game adaptations continues to, well, grow, as major publishers are looking for new ways to expand their universes outside of consoles. To give you a rough idea, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda movie, Sony’s God of War TV series and Xbox’s Gears of War are just a handful of names that currently are in various stages of development, as industry is betting big on cinematic storytelling. Netflix’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed TV series hopes to do the same, drawing on Ubisoft’s extensive lore and espionage to come up a gripping new live-action saga. The streaming giant has brought in Emmy nominees Roberto Patino and David Wiener as creators, showrunners, and executive producers for what is being billed as a “high-octane thriller.” So, if you’re curious about when Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed live-action series will release or who’s going to be in the cast, here’s everything we know so far about Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed TV series.
Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed TV Series: Release Date
You may have to wait a while to get your Assassin’s Creed fix as Netflix still hasn’t locked in an official release date for the upcoming live-action TV series. The project was first revealed in late 2020, when Ubisoft and Netflix announced their partnership to develop “an epic, genre-bending live-action adaptation” that would take inspiration from the franchise’s “trove of dynamic stories with global mass appeal.”
Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed TV Series: Cast
Just like the release date, there’s also no information about the cast for the Assassin’s Creed TV series. As the show is still in the early stages of development, no formal casting announcements have been made.
What Will Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed TV Series Be About
While nothing’s confirmed, the Assassin’s Creed TV series will most likely tell an original story and could pull from its vast lore. However, it is still a big mystery which era of the franchise the upcoming TV series plans to explore and which member of the Assassin lineage it will follow. Not counting the spin-offs, there have been 14 mainline Assassin’s Creed titles so far, and the franchise has moved through a wide mix of time periods. With that kind of variety, the upcoming series has plenty of possible directions and source material to build on. Thankfully, Margaret Boykin, executive producer and head of content at Ubisoft Film & Television, did (vaguely) shed some light on what story Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed TV series could tell, revealing that the series will introduce “unforgettable worlds and timeless themes to new audiences worldwide.”
A few interesting bits of info about what to expect from the upcoming show also come via the show’s official logline, which reads, “Assassin’s Creed is a high-octane thriller centered on the secret war between two shadowy factions — one set on determining mankind’s future through control and manipulation, while the other fights to preserve free will. The series follows its characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity’s destiny.” Those familiar with the games will know that these two factions, of course, are the Assassins and the Templars.
Even showrunners Roberto Patino and David Wiener opened up about the overall direction of the series and the themes they want to explore. “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. 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,” said Patino and Wiener in a recent joint statement.
The duo further went to add, “But more than anything, this is a show about the value of human connection, across cultures, across time. And it’s about what we stand to lose as a species, when those connections break. We’ve got an amazing team behind us with the folks at Ubisoft and our champions at Netflix, and we’re committed to creating something undeniable for fans all over the planet.”
Alongside Wiener and Patino, Gerard Guillemot, Margaret Boykin, Austin Dill from Ubisoft Film & Television, and Matt O’Toole will serve as the executive producers on the project. During a recent update in July, Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s Vice President for Scripted Series, talked a bit
about how Ubisoft and the streamer wanted to go about the live action series saying, “When we first announced our partnership with Ubisoft in 2020, we set out with an ambitious goal to bring the rich, expansive world of Assassin’s Creed to life in bold new ways.” Friedlander then went on to reveal, “Now, after years of dedicated collaboration, it’s inspiring to see just how far that vision has come. Guided by the deft hands of Roberto Patino and David Wiener, the team has carefully crafted an epic adventure that both honors the legacy of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and invites longtime fans and newcomers alike to experience the thrill of the Brotherhood as never before.”
Are There Other TV Shows Like Assassin’s Creed?
While you wait for Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed series, there are plenty other brilliant video game adaptations to keep you occupied. Arcane, The Witcher, Ubisoft’s latest Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners are all available to stream on Netflix, while Bethesda’s Fallout show is available on Prime Video.
