5 Things We Want from Netflix’s ASSASSIN’S CREED Series

Recently Netflix invited fans of Ubisoft’s popular Assassin’s Creed video games to take a Leap of Faith, with the announcement that the games were soon to receive a live-action series adaptation. With November 13 marking 13 years exactly from the first game’s release, we thought it a good time to list some of the things we’d most love to see in the Netflix show. Some of them may be super contradictory, but we figure that’s perfectly on tone with most of the game series’ metaplot. 

Leave Ezio Alone
An image from the game version of Assassin's Creed.

Ubisoft

Ezio Auditore da Firenze is the bomb. His arc from Assassin’s Creed II through Revelations is one of the most fully realized and awesome storylines throughout the game series. All this makes it extremely tempting to use him in an adaptation. But it’s hard to imagine improving upon what was already done. That’s not saying it couldn’t work; after all, The Witcher managed to make a version of Geralt of Rivia that book readers and gamer audiences adore. But he’s also the literal namesake of The Witcher, whereas the AC series offers loads of other paths. 

Kassandra
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Paramount Pictures

Here’s one of those contradictions. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was an immensely popular addition to the games’ roster. Odyssey helped give it a much-needed boost of adrenaline after some less than ideal product launches had caused it to stumble. This was in no small part aided by the charisma of its two potential leads, Alexios and Kassandra. And no shade to the Alexios fans out there, but our allegiance lies with the one true Eagle Bearer. What makes Kass different than Ezio is that the game’s own storyline has built-in longevity for her. While adapting her own story could be rife with the same issues, there are literally centuries of her life during which she could reappear in other assassins’ stories. 

Plan. Out. Your. Meta. Plot.
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Ubisoft

Each AC game manages to tell a (mostly) stand-alone story set in a past era while advancing a modern-day plot that stretches out over several games. This can be good or bad, depending on which stretch of games you look at. The current run from Origins through Valhalla has had a lot of success with Layla Hassan. But there was a five-year period there where the meta plot meandered greatly. It’s unlikely that the series will jettison something so iconic to the series (though some claim that the games could afford to do just that). So instead, those crafting the show should simply have multiple seasons’ worth of a very clear and distinct storyline for the modern-day stuff that the audience can follow. (Also we hope that not reviving Desmond Miles for the TV series is just a no-brainer.)

Don’t Try Too Hard to Replicate Gameplay
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Ubisoft

There are a few visual elements of the Assassin’s Creed games that we expect will find their way into the show. Things like the stylistic assassinations, the eagle eye effects, and the occasional visual glitches that remind us that these characters are actually playing out a computer simulation of dead assassins’ memories. But let’s not forget that much of the early criticisms of the game is that many of the missions can get pretty repetitive pretty quickly. No one wants to watch a TV hero constantly dipping into a crowd of clerics with his hood up or climbing to the top of every single tall structure or mountain she can find just to look out and unlock more of the map. This may seem like an obvious suggestion, but that’s only if you didn’t watch the Battleship movie bend over backward to make the board game’s playstyle work for their alien invasion plot. 

Show Us Something New!
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Ubisoft

Similar to our initial point about Ezio, the thing that makes Assassin’s Creed’s narrative so cool for a game series is that it absolutely is not married to a single protagonist or even time period. The fact that every major new chapter of the games has brought us a brand new assassin from a different time period is a huge, huge part of its longevity. There are so many other historical eras of the world and different famous assassins from different cultures and ethnicities with stories that can inspire new tales. This TV series feels like a perfect opportunity to expand the lore rather than tread old ground. Like we said above, the repetitiveness has always been the weakest part of the games. So why risk it for the show? 

Featured Image: Ubisoft

Riley Silverman is a Nerdist contributing writer. She can be found on  Twitter and  Instagram. Her comedy album Intimate Apparel is available digitally online.

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