Everything you need to know to prepare yourself for Assassin's Creed!

The film adaptation of the much loved video-game franchise, Assassin’s Creed, will be released this year in December, 2016. While the film will not incorporate the lead characters’ stories from the games, it setting in 15th century Spain reflects its aim to explore unchartered territory with filming taking place in the beautiful, historical landscape of Malta. So far the games have been set in the Middle East, Italy, North America, the Caribbean, France and, most recently, in London. Therefore it it is probably best that the film is taken away from these previous locations as gamers would likely prefer to avoid a retelling of the stories that they have already explored in the game while non-gamers would not need to have much background and context to enjoy the film. Notable actors such as Michael Fassbender, best known for his roles in X-Men and Inglorious Bastard, will be playing the lead character, Callum Lynch, who discovers that he is the descendent of a 15th century Master Assassin named Aguilar.

Through the use of groundbreaking technology, the Animus device, Callum becomes genetically linked with his assassin ancestor and is enabled to encompass Aguilar’s memories and skills in order to combat the ongoing oppressive Templar organization of the modern world. In other words, the well known plotline of Assassin’s versus Templars will remain to be a key part of the storyline as well as the use of genetic memories to link the present to the past. Other prominent actors will appear in the film though their characters have not yet been disclosed. They include Jeremy Irons, known for Man in the Iron Mask and The Lion King, Marion Cotillard, who appears in The Dark Knight Rises and Inception, as well as Brendon Gleeson, best known for Harry Potter, Troy and Braveheart.

While I am super keen and excited to see how the adaptation is going to pan out, it is probably best to not put overly high expectations on the film, as there are two possible outcomes we can expect… a big hit or an utter flop. For the sake of the Creed let us hope that it is a big hit! We can sometimes be too critical of spin off films, especially when they attempt to create a world with which we are already so familiar and that we love so well, because often both crucial and minor elements of the storyline is left out in order to fit everything within a two-hour time frame. Nonetheless I don’t think anyone expected an Assassin’s Creed film to become an idea, let alone a reality produced with a leading cast. Either way we can be grateful that we get to see Fassbender in some pretty rockin’ assassin gear!

~ Cloudy Arts ~