After Years of Waiting, Assassin’s Creed TV Series Finally Moves Forward

After years of development, Assassin’s Creed fans will finally see a live-action adaptation of their beloved Ubisoft game franchise, as Netflix has officially given the series a green light.

Netflix has confirmed the news that development has finally moved forward on a live-action Assassin’s Creed show. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter the move is already in motion, and Netflix has just appointed two new showrunners: Roberto Patino and David Wiener, both of whom are no strangers to big-budget adaptation projects. Patino has written for FX’s Sons of Anarchy as well as HBO’s Westworld, while Wiener is set to serve as the showrunner of the Paramount+ Halo show as well as AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead.

In a joint statement, the showrunners announced they had officially been confirmed to be at the helm of the Assassin’s Creed adaptation, and weighed in on their connection to the series as well as their plans for the project:

“We’ve been fans of Assassin’s Creed since it came out 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,” said the duo. “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, transcending cultures and time. And it’s about what we stand to lose as a species when those connections break.”

“We’re collaborating with Ubisoft and Netflix at every stage to ensure we put the best possible version of Assassin’s Creed on screen. We have an amazing team in place, and we can’t wait to get to work on this undeniable show for fans all over the planet.”

A Long Road to TV for the Assassin’s Creed Series

Fans may have been waiting a while for a live-action adaptation of Assassin’s Creed, but the franchise has been one of the most prolific and well-known gaming series around for over a decade. First introduced as a “social stealth” action game set in the time of the Crusades, Assassin’s Creed became a juggernaut for Ubisoft, with the Renaissance Italy series—Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations—considered to be the standout of the franchise, introducing long-term players to series protagonist Ezio Auditore as well as historical intrigue, moral and philosophical questions, and a highly engaging action combat system.

In the past 18 years, Assassin’s Creed has expanded into 14 mainline titles, growing from the stealth-action style to a broader open-world RPG mechanic, all over several wildly different settings. Some of the historical settings for the franchise have included the American Revolution, the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean, Paris during the French Revolution, Victorian-era London, Ancient Egypt, Classical Greece, Viking-invasion Britain, and the most recent title in 2023, Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age.

Assassin’s Creed’s most recent game to receive a release, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, is a direct reaction to some of the fans’ greatest complaints about the direction of the franchise, such as an RPG-centric action focus. The new game takes players to a long-requested locale: feudal Japan. The response to the game from critics and fans has been excellent, citing that Shadows balances the modern nature of Assassin’s Creed’s newer RPG-style while giving nods to the core aspects that have made it one of the most successful video game series over the past 18 years. Part of that success has come from Ubisoft’s willingness to delay the game to provide a higher-quality product. It is a lesson fans hope the streaming service is taking note of when it comes to the production and development of the series.

Fans of the Assassin’s Creed series know that very little has been confirmed about the series’ upcoming live-action Netflix adaptation, but there are some things to speculate and understand before its official debut.

As with the games, the series will likely follow the broad strokes of a centuries-long secret war between Assassins and Templars, two factions struggling to influence the course of humanity’s future. An Animus machine is central to the game’s primary conceit: players, in the present, access genetic memories of their ancestors as they live out significant historical periods all over the world.

Nothing has been said of casting and the story so far, although many are speculating whether this adaptation would include crossover characters from the video game series or whether they will be introducing new characters into the lore. The 2016 Assassin’s Creed film starring Michael Fassbender went its own direction, separate from the games, and generally looked to be doing the same. As a result, we are expecting more of a different standalone narrative rather than specific crossover points with these Assassin’s Creed characters.

Fassbender’s Assassin’s Creed was only moderately successful at the box office but received middling reviews at best. As a result, this live-action Netflix adaptation may or may not acknowledge the events of the previous film; most will be surprised if it does. It should be noted that the timing of Netflix’s show has a lot of favorable factors working in its favor. On one hand, streaming is embracing more and more material with high, expansive lore and settings, so this is a potential genre for Netflix to double down on; on the other hand, interest in high-budget video game adaptations has only continued to grow as of late, and both of these mediums working together is an exciting proposition.

A Live-Action Game Show Netflix Can’t Afford to Miss

Netflix has taken a chance and decided to move forward on an Assassin’s Creed adaptation. Ubisoft isn’t the only gaming company moving to the small screen, as more adaptations have become more common, and for several different reasons, including a better reputation within the industry.

Game-to-screen adaptations have seen a general improvement over the past several years, with HBO’s The Last of Us setting the bar as one of the most faithful, fan-pleasing adaptations, while succeeding both critically and commercially. Netflix has also had its own success with a property like The Witcher, although it has had its share of hiccups along the way.

Whether Assassin’s Creed can achieve the same critical acclaim is another question, but at least, the components are in place for something great. A showrunner team with experience in large franchises, a globally known brand, and a sandbox with decades of scope for character and storytelling is ideal for what Netflix and Ubisoft are looking for.

Assassin’s Creed live-action series is expected to start rolling out casting and filming updates soon. If this deal goes through in the right way, this could be one of the next massive fantasy-historical shows of the streaming age.