Today, 20th Century Fox released a much more comprehensive look at Assassin’s Creed, the blockbuster that ties into Ubisoft’s huge game franchise. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, and Michael K. Williams. Feast your eyes below!
Impressive, no? This is no mere video game adaptation — Fox has apparently woven this movie into the fabric of the series. The look and feel of the action are spot-on. Director Justin Kurzel is a good fit for this, I think. His Macbeth movie (also starring Fassbender and Cotillard) had a unique vibe that balanced fantasy with gritty medieval realism. His love of grimy, smoky, dusty action sequences is here in full force.
Also present in this trailer is more of the movie’s main plot. Unlike the games, the bulk of the story takes place in the near future. In May, executive producer Pat Crowley told IGN that the 15th-century timeline would only account for about 35% of the movie. While the first trailer focused on the past, this new trailer paints a more accurate picture.
I’ve played my fair share of Assassin’s Creed games, so I can only imagine how this must look to complete newcomers. Here’s the lowdown: two shadowy orders have been at war for centuries. The Templars want to oppress and control. The Assassins will stop at nothing to defeat them. Now, The Templars hide behind Abstergo Industries: a multinational tech corporation that serves as a front.
But the lynchpin of the entire Assassin’s Creed franchise is genetic memory. The games posit the idea that the memories of your ancestors are locked inside your DNA. Hence, the only way to unlock them is to use the Animus: a machine that allows us to virtually re-live those genetic memories. And Michael Fassbender’s Callum Lynch has an important Assassin named Aguilar in his bloodline. So you can see how he and his memories might be valuable to the Templars.
But just how valuable will they be? Find out on December 21, when Assassin’s Creed flips and jumps into theaters.