Netflix takes leap of faith with live-action adaptation of hit game Assassin’s Creed

Netflix is taking the plunge and bringing the hit historical-action-adventure video game “Assassin’s Creed” to life.  

The streaming platform will aim to transport the game to television screens in an upcoming series under an agreement with Ubisoft that was signed in 2020. 

While plot details remain scarce, it has already revealed some regular cast members, including the director, for the show.  

Toby Wallace, Lola Petticrew join lead cast  

Toby Wallace, known for his roles in season three of “Euphoria”, “The Bikeriders” and “Babyteeth”, was first revealed as the first series regular in a press release.  

He will be joined by Lola Petticrew, who starred in the historical drama “Say Nothing” from FX.  

Zachary Hart of spy thriller show “Slow Horses” and Laura Marcus of limited series “Death by Lightning” have also been tapped as regulars.  

Netflix is slowly but surely warming up the Animus with these revelations – though who they play and their role in the show remain under wraps.  

And in an announcement last week from Variety, Swedish filmmaker Johan Renck is set to attempt translating the game’s action-packed world into a high-octane thriller as the show’s director.  

Renck won an Emmy for his directing work in HBO’s hit mini-series “Chernobyl”.

He also collaborated with Netflix in last year’s sci-fi feature “Spaceman” and the first two episodes of 2015 series “Bloodline”. 

Roberto Patino and David Wiener will serve as showrunners, as well as executive producers alongside Gerard Guillemot, Margaret Boykin, Austin Dill, Genevieve Jones for Ubisoft Film & Television, and Matt O’Toole, according to a report from Deadline.  

The team is planning to start production in 2026 in Italy.  

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Universal Studios theme park is officially coming to the UK

‘Purpose’ behind the parkour

Patino and Wiener expressed their love for the franchise in a joint statement, saying they were particularly “excited” to bring it to a wider audience.  

“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,” Wiener and Patino told Nerdist.  

The show will feature characters living through historical events and fighting to shape “humanity’s destiny” – much like the game. 

It will particularly centre on the secret war between two shadowy factions, one keen on determining the future of mankind via control and the other fighting for free will.  

Assassin’s Creed legacy  

“Assassin’s Creed” has since garnered a devoted fanbase since its first release in 2007, selling more than 230 million games over the last 17 years.  

The allure of it, besides parkour and cool fighting moves, was how the game brought gamers to vast ancient cities and revolutionary eras – from the French Revolution to the time of the Vikings in medieval England – that combined science and historical fiction, political mystery and philosophical plots.  

Its latest installment, “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows”, was released just this year, which took players to 16th-century Japan. 

Breaking into the TV mainstream 

Netflix’s endeavour into the game adaptation scene is not the first, and perhaps it will not be the last.  

HBO earlier took notice of the potential of video games as a source material for more intricate storytelling with its production of “The Last of Us”. 

Based on the beloved video game franchise from Naughty Dog, the series of the same name transported viewers to a post-apocalyptic setting where zombie-like creatures have ravaged the world.  

Helmed by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, who gave life to Joel Miller and Ellie respectively, “The Last of Us” garnered critical acclaim, receiving 24 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for its first season and winning eight at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, just to name a few. 

The second season, released this year, was nominated for 16 Primetime Emmy Awards.  

Another post-apocalyptic role-playing video game, “Fallout”, also got the TV adaptation treatment from Amazon Prime Video, starring Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, Walton Goggins and Frances Turner. 

The series, set centuries after the collapse of society due to a nuclear holocaust, was nominated for various recognitions including the Critics’ Choice Super Awards and the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, among others.  

And while it remains to be seen if Netflix can break into the scene with success like its competitors, one thing is clear: Like the Assassins, it is taking one giant leap of faith to do so.

READ NEXT: Merry & gay: Four queer movies to watch to get into the holiday spirit