Here Is What Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed Will Reveal About The Brotherhood Before Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
The adventures of Ezio in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood turned Rome into the favorite location for Assassin’s Creed fans. After the last live-action adaptation of the popular video game franchise ended in spectacular failure for 20th Century Fox in 2016, Netflix’s live-action Assassin’s Creed series was always under pressure to hit all the sweet spots with fans, and the setting sounds like a great start. Netflix has announced that the series is set in 64AD Rome, putting it squarely in one of the Roman Empire’s most chaotic periods.
According to Netflix, the show will not feature a story or characters set in any of the Assassin’s Creed games, which sounds a lot like what was done in the 2016 live-action Assassin’s Creed film. However, the show’s story will benefit from the popularity of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood storyline, as the explosive period of its setting could be used to explain the collapse of the Brotherhood in Rome, leading up to the setting Ezio turns up to over nearly 1500 years later.
At the center of the action will obviously be the Great Fire of Rome, which, according to historical sources, could well have been state-sponsored. The high level of scheming and backstabbing in Emperor Nero’s court makes it the perfect setting for an Assassins vs Templars feud right in the streets of Rome. The execution, however, has to be on point if the series is to avoid the mistakes made by its big-screen predecessor, which is where the team in charge comes in.
While not mentioned in Netflix’s official announcement, the most significant name in the show’s creative team is its Swedish director, Johan Renck, known for his work on the HBO miniseries Chernobyl. Renck is a master of unforgiving, lived-in historical settings, having previously worked on some episodes of Vikings and Bates Motel. He also directed some episodes of Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, making him a veteran of the combination of high-octane action-adventure and historical thrill that makes up the Netflix series.
The show’s co-showrunners are Halo’s David Wiener and Roberto Patino, known for Westworld and Sons of Anarchy. The Netflix announcement also confirmed four new recurring cast members, Noomi Rapace, Ramzy Bedia, Sean Harris, and Corrado Invernizzi, to appear alongside Euphoria’s Tobby Wallace and Say Nothing’s Lola Petticrew, who are the leads in the ensemble cast. Other confirmed members of the cast are Zachary Hart (Slow Horses), Laura Marcus (Bad Education), Tanzyn Crawford (AKOTSK), Nabhaan Rizwan, and Claes Bang.
The series will be the first in Netflix and Ubisoft’s 2020 agreement that will see more of the developer’s games adapted for the streaming giant. Ubisoft’s Film & Television team, led by Gerard Guilemot, Genevieve Jones, Austin Dill, and Margaret Boykin, will also work alongside Netflix’s Executive producers on the set. The show’s production is already underway in Rome, with most of the filming taking place in Cinecittà Studios, famous for its giant, real-life-looking set of Ancient Rome.
