Netflix is reportedly developing a live-action series adaptation of Ubisoft’s popular “Assassin’s Creed” video game franchise.
In fact the series is just the first part of a deal between Netflix and Ubisoft to develop content based on that specific franchise with animated and anime series tie-ins likely to happen as well.
The search is currently on for a showrunner for the first series, with Ubisoft Film & Television’s Jason Altman and Danielle Kreinik set to serve as executive producers.
The game series kicked off in 2007 with over 155 million copies of the various titles selling to date. Each of the games explored the war between the rival secret orders of the Assassins and the Templars and was mostly set in a different time period – Third Crusade, Renaissance Italy, American Revolution, Caribbean at piracy’s height, Revolutionary France, Victorian England, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, etc..
Said time periods were accessed from the present day via the Animus, a machine allowing access to genetic memories of Assassins in different periods in a race to track down powerful artifacts called Pieces of Eden.
The TV series would follow on from a 2016 film adaptation which starred Michael Fassbender and grossed over $240 million worldwide against a reported budget of $125 million.
Ubisoft and Netflix are also currently working on the film “The Division” starring Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal, and an anime series based on the “Splinter Cell” franchise.