Netflix's Assassin's Creed Reboot's Game & Historical Authenticity Hyped By Star In "Extraordinary" Filming Update

From Masyaf to the Animus · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Assassin’s Creed? “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.”

⚔The CrusadesWhere it all began

🏛RenaissanceRequiescat in pace

⚓Golden AgeHoist the black flag

☥Ancient WorldOrigins of the creed

🧬Modern DayEnter the Animus

01

The original Assassin’s Creed (2007) is set during the Third Crusade in 1191. You play as a master assassin who must redeem himself after a botched mission by hunting nine Templar targets across the Holy Land — Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem. The character’s name translates from Arabic as “The Bird, Son of No One.” Who is this iconic protagonist?

✓ Correct! Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad — whose name means “The Bird, Son of No One” — is the assassin who started it all. Stripped of his rank after violating the Creed’s three tenets at Solomon’s Temple, he must work his way back by eliminating Templar targets across the Holy Land. He’d return as a brief playable cameo in Revelations and become the de facto face of the Brotherhood’s legacy.

✗ Desynchronized! The answer is Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad. Ezio Auditore stars in AC2, Brotherhood and Revelations. Connor Kenway leads AC3 during the American Revolution. Bayek of Siwa is the protagonist of AC Origins in Ptolemaic Egypt. Altaïr is where the Brotherhood’s on-screen story began — and the Animus subject Desmond Miles relives in the very first game.

02

Ezio Auditore da Firenze is the fan-favourite assassin who starred in three games — AC2, Brotherhood and Revelations — tracing a journey from young nobleman to Mentor of the Italian Brotherhood. His tale begins when his father and brothers are betrayed and hanged. Which Italian city is Ezio’s home, and the literal answer encoded in his name?

✓ Correct! Florence — or “Firenze” in Italian, as his full name spells out (Ezio Auditore da Firenze = Ezio Auditore of Florence). The opening hours of AC2 lovingly recreate Renaissance Florence, including the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio and the Palazzo della Signoria. Ezio later expands the Brotherhood across Venice, Rome (Brotherhood) and Constantinople (Revelations) over a 35-year arc.

✗ Desynchronized! The answer is Florence. The clue is right in his name: Ezio Auditore da Firenze — literally “of Florence.” Rome is the primary setting of Brotherhood, Venice is the late-game stage of AC2, and Naples doesn’t appear as a major setting in the series. Florence is where the Auditore family is publicly executed in 1476 and where Ezio’s vendetta begins.

03

In Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), pirate-turned-assassin Edward Kenway crews up with the historical figureheads of the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean. One of his closest mentors is a fearsome captain who wove lit fuses into his beard to intimidate enemies before boarding. Name the pirate.

✓ Correct! Blackbeard — real name Edward Thatch — serves as a mentor and close friend to Edward Kenway in Black Flag. All four options are real historical pirates who appear in the game, but Blackbeard’s burning-fuse beard, his flagship the Queen Anne’s Revenge and his climactic last stand at Ocracoke Inlet make him one of the entire franchise’s most memorable supporting characters.

✗ Desynchronized! The answer is Blackbeard (Edward Thatch). All four pirates appear in Black Flag: Calico Jack (Jack Rackham) is a minor figure, Charles Vane is a volatile rival, and Mary Read is a key ally with deep ties to the Assassin Brotherhood — but the burning-fuse beard is Blackbeard’s historical and in-game signature.

04

Throughout the series, both the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order wage their shadow war over ancient, reality-bending artefacts created by a precursor civilisation called the Isu. They can dominate minds, project illusions and bend matter. By what umbrella name are they collectively known?

✓ Correct! The Pieces of Eden — the Apple of Eden, the Sword of Eden, the Shroud of Eden, the Staff of Hermes and many more. They’re the central macguffins of every entry in the series, with both factions believing control of them will define humanity’s future. The Apple alone has driven the entire main plot from AC1 through Mirage.

✗ Desynchronized! The answer is Pieces of Eden. The Animus is the device used to relive ancestral genetic memories, not an artefact. While “Isu” and “Precursor” are terms for the ancient civilisation itself, the artefacts they left behind are specifically called Pieces of Eden — including the famous Apple of Eden that appears in nearly every game in the franchise.

05

Assassin’s Creed Origins (2017) takes players to Ptolemaic Egypt and tells the founding myth of the Brotherhood — then known simply as the Hidden Ones. You play as the last Medjay, a sworn protector of the people, hunting the men responsible for his son’s death. Name this founding assassin.

✓ Correct! Bayek of Siwa is the last Medjay of Egypt — an ancient protector of the people. Driven by the murder of his son Khemu, Bayek and his wife Aya hunt down the Order of the Ancients (proto-Templars) one by one. By the end of the game, Aya founds the Hidden Ones in Rome — the precursor order that becomes the Assassin Brotherhood across the rest of the timeline.

✗ Desynchronized! The answer is Bayek of Siwa. Adéwalé is Edward Kenway’s quartermaster from Black Flag (later starring in the Freedom Cry DLC). Eivor is the Viking protagonist of Valhalla. Kassandra is the canonical hero of Odyssey, set in ancient Greece. Bayek is the Egyptian Medjay who started it all.

06

In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (2020), you play as a Viking raider who leads their clan from Norway to England during the 9th-century Great Heathen Army period, forging alliances, building a settlement at Ravensthorpe and eventually being pulled into the Hidden Ones’ war against the Order of the Ancients. Name the protagonist.

✓ Correct! Eivor Varinsdottir (or Varinsson, depending on your choice) is the Viking warrior protagonist. Players can lock the gender or let the Animus auto-switch between them. Valhalla became one of the best-selling entries in the entire franchise, with a massive open world spanning England, Norway, mythological realms (Asgard, Jotunheim) and a long late-game tail of free DLC.

✗ Desynchronized! The answer is Eivor. Sigurd is Eivor’s adoptive brother and a key figure in the story. Ragnar Lothbrok is a legendary Viking who doesn’t actually appear in the game. Basim Ibn Ishaq is a Hidden One ally with a major secret revealed in the final act — and the playable protagonist of the 2023 spinoff Mirage. Eivor is the one you control throughout Valhalla.

07

In the modern-day storyline that frames every game, the Templar Order operates through a powerful multinational corporation. This company built the Animus and uses it to mine subjects’ genetic memories for the location of Pieces of Eden. Desmond Miles is held captive in its labs through the first three games. Name this Templar front.

✓ Correct! Abstergo Industries — the Templar Order’s modern-day front, posing as a pharmaceutical and technology conglomerate. Through its entertainment subsidiary, Abstergo even sells Animus experiences as consumer video games (a clever meta-commentary on the franchise itself). Warren Vidic and Alan Rikkin run its sinister R&D, and the company has been the in-fiction publisher of every “Animus simulation” you’ve ever played.

✗ Desynchronized! The answer is Abstergo Industries. “Helix” is actually the name of Abstergo Entertainment’s consumer Animus product (the in-fiction console that ships AC4 to the public), not the parent company. Animus Industries and Templar Enterprises are made up. Abstergo has been the Templar front since the very first game in 2007, holding Desmond Miles captive to mine his genetic memories.

08

Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2025) is set in feudal Japan during the late Sengoku period and features two playable protagonists with completely different playstyles. One is the historical African samurai Yasuke, who favours direct heavy-weapon combat. The other is a stealth-focused shinobi from Iga Province. Name this second protagonist.

✓ Correct! Naoe is the shinobi protagonist of AC Shadows, offering pure stealth gameplay as the counterpart to Yasuke’s heavy samurai combat. Players freely switch between the two characters across the open world — each bringing a radically different approach to the same Sengoku-era objectives. The dual-protagonist system echoes AC Syndicate’s Frye twins but takes the playstyle split far further than any previous AC title.

✗ Desynchronized! The answer is Naoe. Shao Jun is the Chinese assassin from AC Chronicles: China (set in 1526). Aveline de Grandpré is the Creole protagonist of AC Liberation (1765 New Orleans). Evie Frye is one half of the Frye twins in AC Syndicate (Victorian London). Naoe is the new shinobi protagonist exclusive to Shadows, paired with the historical samurai Yasuke.

/ 8

Master Assassin — or first-day Animus initiate?