The Assassin’s Creed Shadows development team has answered fan questions on the future of the franchise’s modern day storyline, as well as various lingering plot threads left unanswered in the series’ recent blockbuster.
Shadows is designed as something of a soft reboot for the series, with no playable modern day section and a strong focus on the real-life historical elements found in its version of feudal Japan. Little mention is made of events from previous games — something that ensures new players don’t feel like they need to head to Wikipedia and catch up.
The game’s story reintroduces the Assassins and Templars slowly, and makes no mention of Basim — a major character seen within Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Assassin’s Creed Mirage whose fate is left open-ended. The Isu, Assassin’s Creed’s mysterious precursor race, meanwhile do not play a part at all — following a string of games where the hunt for one of their artefacts acted as the main macguffin.
Now, during a fan Q&A on reddit, the game’s development team has answered questions regarding whether the series will deliver more modern day storyline in the future, whether we’ll see Basim again, and which of the game’s current crossovers are canon.
“With AC Shadows we are putting in place the first stone of new means to deliver the modern day storyline with the Animus Hub,” wrote level design director Luc Plante. “That is not the end of it, and we are listening to your feedback.”
Currently, fans can unlock snippets of text logs that tell a fresh story featuring various Assassin and Templar units in what seems to be the near future. So, technically, rather than the “modern day”, this storytelling time period now appears to be a number of decades ahead (and something that conveniently means ongoing plot threads like the character of Basim can be moved past).
But will fans get more of Basim’s story? Valhalla’s ending left the character’s future wide open, with many fans expecting him to appear again in a prominent role. Mirage, which tells the story of his origins, meanwhile once featured a bizarre post-credits scene hinting at more from the game set to come.
“We have complex new characters that were introduced in Shadows that we didn’t feel there would have been enough spotlight for Basim as well,” Plante continued.
Could Basim’s story be picked up in Shadows? It seems unlikely. The character feels too far removed from the game’s Japanese storyline, and it’s easy to see why Ubisoft did not have a place for him in the game.
At the same time, it’s worth remembering that Ubisoft declined to comment earlier this year on a report in a French newspaper that stated the company was now working on new content for Mirage, following an injection of funding from Saudi Arabia’s controversial Public Investment Fund. Perhaps this, if and when it arrives, will be used to wrap up Basim’s narrative.
“The AC lore is very complex and keep expending as we are creating new games,” Plante said, when asked why events in the franchise’s expanded universe of games and comics were not mentioned specifically within Shadows. “We are not retconning what we have done in the past, but we do not necessarily mention everything in every game if it doesn’t directly support the narrative we are building.
Ubisoft has taken a similar approach to the Isu, who remained off-screen within the game. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Valhalla leant heavily into their settings’ mythological elements. Shadows, however, treated (almost) everything without the need for a supernatural or sci-fi explanation.
“Similar to this, the fact that there is no Isu artifact in the main game of Shadows doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist in the world of Shadows,” Plante said, “it just wasn’t a story device that we needed for the story we wanted to tell.”
Speaking of supernatural elements, Plante confirmed Shadows’ unlockable Dead by Daylight content was “not canon to the story of Shadows.” That said, the recent Critical Role crossover with the new character of Rufino is canon, and tied into the game’s main themes.
Next up for Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the game’s big Claws of Awaji expansion, due on September 16. Alongside a fresh region to explore, the add-on will expand on Shadows’ current ending with new story for Naoe and Yasuke. Maybe the Isu are lurking somewhere within it?
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
