“Jimmy Kimmel Live” Debuts First Official ASSASSIN’S CREED Trailer

On Wednesday, May 11^th, the late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live premiered the first trailer for the movie Assassin’s Creed, which has since taken the Internet by storm with over 9 million views.

The official 2016 movie trailer was announced in style: A man dressed in full Assassin’s regalia — seeming to have stepped right out of the video game and onto the show’s set complete with all the parkour moves that fans of the games have come to love — hand delivered a disc to Kimmel halfway through the show.

Assassin’s Creed is a film based on the continuing action-adventure video game series currently consisting of nine main game titles, along with several various supporting games, comics, novels and films.

Fans of the game series have long anticipated the movie’s release, hoping for a faithful adaption of the game in live action form. In June 2012, well-known actor Michael Fassbender was announced as the main protagonist of the film. Fassbender has played several different roles over the course of his career, most recently starring as Steve Jobs in the biographical drama of the same name, and Macbeth in the feature-length adaption of William’s Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Joining him in the cast is actress Marion Cotillard, who also starred alongside Fassbender in Justin Kurzel’s adaption of Macbeth. Cotillard is probably more recognized for her role in the award-winning film Inception as Mal Cobbs, the wife of Dominick Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

It can be deduced within the first 20 seconds of the two-minute trailer that Fassbender’s character, Callum Lynch, is a criminal when a mysterious woman in a lab coat (played by Cotillard) tells him he has just been legally pronounced dead by lethal injection.

Cotillard continues narration of the trailer, explaining the expectation that in return for saving his life, Lynch will be put into the Animus: a large and menacing mechanical device which will allow him to relive the memories of his 15^th century Spanish ancestor, Aguilar de Nerha.

The remaining minute of the trailer is action-packed, filled with parkour stunts both climbing up and jumping down buildings, slow motion leaps across rooftops, hand-to-hand combat scenes, and arrow shooting. The last seconds of the trailer show Lynch swan dive from the top of an impossibly high building into the city below; this jump is called a “leap of faith” in the games and is one of the staples of the series.

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There are a few parts of the trailer which fans of the game will recognize while newcomers to the AC universe will not.  For instance, the story told in the trailer is reminiscent of Ubisoft’s initial title Assassin’s Creed: Lynch is being held against his will by the corporation Abstergo Industries, just like the video game series’ main protagonist Desmond Miles. Although Miles is aware of his Assassin heritage in the game, Lynch appears to be unaware that he is descendant from the Assassin de Nerha. Abstergo is the modern day equivalent of the Templar Order.

It is well-known by players that there is an ongoing “behind the scenes” war being waged between Templars and Assassins for centuries. The game franchise is all about the fictional history of the Assassins and how their struggles against the Templar Order have affected or caused real historical events. Assassin’s Creed II is set during the Italian Renaissance, Assassin’s Creed III is played out during the American Revolution, Assassin’s Creed Unity occurs during the French Revolution, and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate takes place during the Victorian era in London.

Each of the games has intertwining story lines and characters, which brings up possibilities for the future of the AC universe in film. If the Justin Kurzel directed film does well, it can be assumed that sequels will be made. But how much will the films follow the video game AC universe? Although it has been confirmed by Ubisoft chief financial officer Alain Martinez that the next installment of the game franchise will not be set during the Spanish Inquisition like the movie, he did not deny that there might be some interchange between the films and games in the future.

It was announced in February by Ubisoft that they would be breaking the yearly release schedule that the AC games have been following since 2009 with the release of ACII.  The break of this seven-year streak has been explained as a “re-examination of the AC franchise” by Ubisoft, but rumors in the gaming community are that it is because Ubisoft’s first next-gen console game, Assassin’s Creed Unity, resulted in mixed feelings from long-time fans. Though the game was more impressive as far as graphics and increased CPU presence, the game as a whole received negative feedback.

The next AC game will be set in Ancient Egypt and has been announced under the codename Assassin’s Creed: Empire for release in 2017. The Assassin’s Creed film will hit movie theaters December 21st, 2016.

 

Related Links:

Assassin’s Creed Movie Official Site: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/assassins-creed

Assassin’s Creed Movie Facebook Site: https://www.facebook.com/AssassinsCreedMovie

Assassin’s Creed Game Official Site: http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-us/home/

Assassin’s Creed Game Facebook Site: https://www.facebook.com/AC.UnityTR

Ubisoft Official Site: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/