Netflix is finally ready to move forward with its live-action Assassin’s Creed series, five years on from when the project was first announced.
In a press release today, Netflix said it had now officially greenlit its Assassin’s Creed project, which will now be headed up by Roberto Patino and David Wiener, previously showrunners on DMZ and Halo, respectively. Both will serve as creators, showrunners and executive producers on the series, alongside input from Ubisoft.
“Beneath the scope, the spectacle, the parkour and the thrills is a baseline for the most essential kind of human story — about people searching for purpose, struggling with questions of identity and destiny and faith,” Patino and Wiener said in a joint statement.
“It is about power and violence and sex and greed and vengeance,” the pair continued. “But more than anything, this is a show about the value of human connection, across cultures, across time. And it’s about what we stand to lose as a species, when those connections break.”
So, what’s been taking so long? Over the past five years, several creatives have joined and left the project — including Die Hard writer Jeb Stuart — though details of what’s been happening behind the scenes remain scarce.
There’s little to go on now, either, regarding a potential historical focus for the series, or how deeply it may tie into the franchise’s established video game universe.
“When we first announced our partnership with Ubisoft in 2020, we set out with an ambitious goal to bring the rich, expansive world of Assassin’s Creed to life in bold new ways,” said Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s Vice President, Scripted Series. “Now, after years of dedicated collaboration, it’s inspiring to see just how far that vision has come.
“Guided by the deft hands of Roberto Patino and David Wiener, the team has carefully crafted an epic adventure that both honors the legacy of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and invites longtime fans and newcomers alike to experience the thrill of the Brotherhood as never before.”
Of course, this isn’t the first live-action Assassin’s Creed adaptation. The franchise’s big budget Michael Fassbender-starring movie launched in 2016, albeit to something of a mixed reception — and Ubisoft has subsequently reflected on the lessons it learned from making that.
Back in the world of video games, the main Assassin’s Creed series shows no signs of slowing down. The feudal Japan-set Assassin’s Creed Shadows is due its first major expansion before the end of 2025, and fans are now awaiting the highly-anticipated announcement of an Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag remaster. After that, the witchy-looking Assassin’s Creed Hexe is already in development, for launch sometime in the back half of this decade.
When will Netflix’s own Assassin’s Creed effort debut, in amongst all of that? Today’s announcement does not say, but things do at least seem to be moving in the right direction.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
