Video game movies have never really had it easy. Whether it’s the difficulty of translating interactive experiences into something that’s entertaining to sit through only watching, or be it down to the blandness and generic traits associated with several game protagonists, it’s safe to say game inspired movies typically fall short of their perceived potential and Assassin’s Creed was no different.
With news that Netflix is developing a live action Assassin’s Creed series, there’s new hope that the network can match The Witcher’s positive impact, especially by sticking to a series format that would lend itself much better to the slow-paced progression games are written for. But exactly what else needs to be done to achieve perfect synchronization between games and TV?
The forgettable Assassin’s Creed movie opted to go with entirely new protagonists, having Michael Fassbender play modern Callum Lynch alongside Spanish inquisition assassin Aguilar de Nerha. It was a reasonable decision that wasn’t overly successful. Building a protagonist out of thin air is not easy and it was wholly unnecessary when the franchise had its own share of assassins with captivating storylines.
Enter Ezio Auditore da Firenze, mentor of the Italian brotherhood and lead character in Assassin’s Creed’s best reviewed and most beloved entries. Unlike other assassins, fans got to see Ezio grow from his late teens up to his fifties experiencing the death of his loved ones, his own struggles to establish the Creed during the Renaissance era and his final steps to prevent the world from falling to Templar rule. Ezio’s adventures in Italy and the old Ottoman Empire had some of the best storytelling in the series and there’s no need for that to go to waste. The same could be said for Desmond Miles, who would be there to connect the dots between Ezio and any other assassins, something the games’ later entries gave up on altogether.
On a side note, the supporting cast has to be much stronger as well; aside from Fassbender and Marion Cotillard’s main roles, no-one else in the film is all that memorable, a stark contrast to the games’ rich repertoire of charming and menacing historical figures.
Assassin’s Creed I was not the most polished game in the series nor was it the best representative of the stealth-action genre, but a big part of its promise was the possibility to jump in a time machine and go back 1000 years to get a glimpse at what the world looked like back then. This was one of the biggest flaws in 2016’s movie adaptation, not paying enough attention to its Seville setting.
People don’t play Assassin’s Creed for the modern storylines, they do it because they want to be friends with Leonardo Da Vinci and George Washington. They want to jump-start the French revolution, oppose Cleopatra’s rule and slay mythological beasts. The main focus for an Assassin’s Creed series adaptation has to be the past, with the present serving as a secondary plot that can be more slowly explored, especially if this ends up being a multi-season affair.
There are very solid arguments to make the animus more than a VR device paired up with a screen, nevertheless the movie adaptation took things a bit too far by turning the technological plot device into an almost amusement park-like attraction that commanded too much attention. This was a direct consequence of the movie leaning more on to the present plot rather than the past, so it would be easily fixed by taking a route more similar to The Matrix.
Justin Kurzel explained his decision to use Spanish dialogue in his Assassin’s Creed movie saying it “added exoticness and richness to the film”, however, it’s no secret Hollywood is usually no fan of subtitles. The problem is that Aguilar’s story was barely there, so it didn’t stand out more than a few lines of Dothraki or High-elven would do in their respective worlds.
If the Assassin’s Creed series steps in the right direction and makes the past its main narrative, then dialogue language cannot be a light-hearted choice. While Netflix has seen success among English-speaking audiences with foreign shows like Money Heist, Narcos and Dark, producers would not want to alienate potential viewers with too much Italian speech, even if it indeed would make it artistically better.
One easy workaround for this would be opting to explore the Kenways’ stories, as the family offers plenty of drama set in the sunny Caribbean, Georgian era England or setting up the fires for the American revolution.
The First Civilization, also known as the Precursors, Those Who Came Before and now simply rebranded to the Isu were always a looming presence in early Assassin’s Creed games. They were referred to in mostly anecdotic manner, but their presence kept on growing and by the time the movie came out in 2016, Desmond Miles had already met his fate at their hands.
If Assassin’s Creed is to stand a chance of breaking into mainstream television, its best chances are aligned to a good old fashioned Assassins Vs. Templars story set in a historical period that’s attractive for audiences. Take popular characters from the games, or at least develop new ones reminiscent of Ezio, and steer clear the Isu.
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