A decade after the Assassin’s Creed film failed to start a screen franchise, Ubisoft is hoping to rewrite history with a new adaptation of its hit video game series, and this time, it’ll be a Netflix TV series.
Netflix describes the project as a “high-octane thriller centered on the secret war between two shadowy factions,” which “follows its characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity’s destiny.”
Can the TV show excel where the film fell short? We have suggestions for its writers and producers…
1. Center on protagonists fans can root for
The way we see it, the Assassin’s Creed TV show has two options for its main characters: Feature iconic characters from the games, played by actors who seem born to play them — à la The Last of Us’ Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey — or introduce new characters that captivate our attention from the jump — à la Fallout and Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins’ characters. The film, unfortunately, did neither.
2. Bring iconic historical landmarks back to life
One of the joys of the Assassin’s Creed games is seeing depictions of historical landmarks in (or, at least, closer to) their heydays. We come face to face with the Pantheon in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Notre Dame in Unity, the Giza pyramids in Origins, and the Pantheon in Odyssey. Seeing those landmarks depicted in polygons and pixels is one thing; seeing them recreated on film, populated with flesh-and-blood humans, would be an entirely different treat.
3. Film on location (or fake it well enough)
To its credit, 2016’s Assassin’s Creed film was set in the Spanish Inquisition and actually shot scenes in Spain. Netflix’s TV show should also film in whatever real-world settings it depicts. Barring that, its cast and crew could film with the same virtual production methods that make The Mandalorian’s soundstage look like any number of intergalactic locations. But the Assassin’s Creed team should be forewarned that viewers’ VFX standards are getting higher by the day.
4. Hire the best stunt performers
The Assassin’s Creed franchise is known for its parkour-like gameplay as the player characters rebound from rooftops to walls on their quests. And the video games’ “leap of faith” found its way into the film, as a stunt performer braved a 125-foot freefall for that production. With so much CGI making up Hollywood magic these days, it would be awe-inspiring for the Assassin’s Creed TV show to have real stunt performers taking similar leaps of faith.
5. Focus on stealth more than direct combat
We hope the Assassin’s Creed TV show stays true to the video game franchise’s stealth-based origins. More recent games in the series have drifted away from the knife-in-the-dark style gameplay in favor of the kind of hand-to-hand melees common in roleplaying games. For a TV show, though, what’s more suspenseful — a character tiptoeing toward their objective, or one charging in with swords swinging and guns blazing?
6. Ease viewers into the story
One of the failures of the film is the exposition dumps it relied upon to introduce newcomers to the story mechanics — how modern-day humans use Animus technology to access the lives of their ancestors and insert themselves in the millennia-old battle between the Order of Assassins and the Knights Templar and the search for the mythical Apple of Eden. The film also had only two hours to present such a convoluted premise and get to the action. A TV show has more breathing room, and it should use those extra hours and parcel out its exposition organically.
7. Keep the fun alive
The film also took itself very seriously, both in dialogue and in cinematography. Every character seemed dour; every scene looked drab. But this is a video game franchise about time-traveling action heroes caught in a quasi-historical battle between heavily fictionalized orders. A self-aware adaptation would provide a swashbuckling, witty, in-on-the-joke caper, and we hope Netflix understands the assignment.