Charlotte de la Cruz is overeducated and underemployed, wasting her time in a dead-end job in San Diego, and spending her free time chasing down conspiracy theories on the dark side of the internet. When a real-life conspiracy crashes into her life, she's pulled into the orbit of the Assassins, a mysterious organisation of principled killers with roots stretching back thousands of years - and users of the stolen Animus technology, which allows them to experience the memories of their ancestors as if they were there!

Charlotte has a secret in her blood... the genetic memory of an ancestor who was in Salem at the time of the infamous witch trails: Tom Stoddard, an Assassin who witnessed a dark act with repercussions for the present day! As Charlotte is trained in the Assassins' art, and as she begins to investigate the life of her ancestor... the forces of the Templar Order move against her. Will Charlotte learn the skills she needs to survive, and the truth she needs to prove her worth - before the Templars silence her forever?!

Gamer by night and passionate millennial bank clerk by day, Charlotte de la Cruz is looking for a new gig despite the who-you-know-not-what-you-know politics of the job search. After a disappointing interview and playing Robin Hood, she’s met by members of an underground group of urban myth, just before her life being threatened by a couple of suits. You know the story from here: Charlotte is tasked with protecting a vital piece of history by synching with her ancestor, throwing her into the middle of a clandestine battle to keep the wrong people from messing with history.

Assassin’s Creed definitely had an excellent start. When I found the main character was a woman of color, I was instantly on board. Charlotte is lively and Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery make her loveable, just, and spunky. She’s one of my favorite kind of women in fiction, so she was refreshing, especially when she risked her job to help someone who needed it.

Neil Edwards and Ivan Nunes excel at creating dynamic art. The action sequences are great and there’s such an amazing sense of movement. A couple of panels were a bit awkward, but for the most part the art captures a sense of sudden intensity in Charlotte’s world.

I loved that this comic explored some complex issues. After a recession and growing costs of higher education, many millennials are in a period called emerging adulthood, where we essentially have to spend more time building our financial lives and sometimes live with parents, go to graduate school, etc. Charlotte is facing a very real issue that many people in our generation do, and it’s nice to see it fleshed out, including what it feels like to be passed up for a job in favor of someone an employer knows.

Charlotte’s passion for justice was a wonderful touch and one of the shining moments of this issue. She sticks to her guns and knows when the system is working against people who need help the most. Charlotte connecting her customer’s experience at the bank to her experience watching her uncle in the hospital was an important addition to this issue. Many people of color face similar circumstances for many reasons, especially as our family members end up in the hospital or when they die.

A live-action film, Assassin's Creed, set in the same universe as the video games and other media, was released on December 21, 2016. Development for the film began in October 2011, when Sony Pictures entered final negotiations with Ubisoft Motion Pictures to make the film. In July 2012, Michael Fassbender was announced to star in the film, as well as co-produce the film. His role was revealed in August 2015 as Callum Lynch, whose ancestor Aguilar, is an Assassin from 15th-century Spain. In October 2012, Ubisoft revealed the film would no longer be produced by Sony Pictures, instead co-produced with New Regency and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

In November 2016, it was announced that Ubisoft and Netflix started talks regarding how to develop an Assassin's Creed series. In July 2017, Adi Shankar revealed he would be creating the series, which would be in the anime format. The series, which will feature an original story from Shankar, will share the same universe as the other media of the franchise.

A live-action series, an animated series, and an anime series were announced in October 2020 for Netflix. The live-action series will be produced by Ubisoft Film & Television for the streaming service, with Jason Altman and Danielle Kreinik as executive producers and Jeb Stuart as the writer.

Netflix's Assassin's Creed TV Show Gets Surprising Update, Along With A New Game Announcement

The planned Assassin's Creed series from Netflix gets an update we were not expecting.

The Assassin’s Creed franchise of video games has been incredibly successful since its debut in 2007. Its genre bending combination of historical epic and science fiction would seem to be made for a TV or movie adaptation, but the one time the concept hit the big screen it fell flat. Now, it sounds like maybe the previously announced series for Netflix isn’t faring much better, as it’s still in “early” development despite being announced two years ago.

It was the fall of 2020 when it was first reported that video game developer Ubisoft and Netflix were partnering on a new live-action series based in the Assassin’s Creed universe. A year after that, we were told that Vikings: Valhalla scribe Jeb Stuart was being brought on as showrunner. You’d think that after all that, the show would be further along. However, as part of a showcase on the Assassin’s Creed franchise over the weekend, series producer Marc-Alexis Côté said the show, while clearly still happening, hasn’t moved much. He explained…

"Well, it's still early in development. But I can confirm that we are co-developing the Netflix series with Ubisoft Film & Television, Netflix, obviously, and an insanely talented show runner, Jeb Stuart. It's gonna be an epic, genre-bending, live-action adaptation of our video game series."

It’s great that the show is still in development at all, but it is more than a little strange that the show is still apparently so early that there’s really nothing that can be said about what it even is. Clearly, this process has been a slow one. It seems likely that when the show was announced, the deal had just been signed, and things may not have moved forward at all until the showrunner was hired last year.

Assassin's Creed follows a centuries old battle between Assassins and the Knights Templar. The games are primarily set in a historical time period, like the Italian Renaissance or the American Revolution, but the events being experienced are actually those of a modern day character, experiencing the genetic memory of an ancestor via advanced technology.

Moving slowly isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The last time Assassin’s Creed was adapted for the screen, it didn’t work out all that well, so taking their time to make sure that this new project is going to work isn’t the worst idea in the world. Even star Michael Fassbender admitted the film just wasn't entertaining. What else is there to even say after that?

While one might read the lack of movement as a potential lack of interest, indicating the show could end up in development hell forever, as so many shows and movies have, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Alongside the news that the Netflix series is still moving forward comes the news that Netflix and Ubisoft are working together on three different mobile games, one of which is also based on Assassin’s Creed, so both sides of this partnership due appear to be committed to each other, making it look like this show will eventually happen.

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Excelsior!