The original plan for the Assassin’s Creed series was to end on a spaceship • Eurogamer.net

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The original plan for Assassin’s Creed – when the entire franchise was planned as a trilogy – was to see the series’ protagonist Desmond blast off aboard a spaceship.

Details of the idea, dreamed up by Assassin’s Creed co-founder Patrice Deseles, have been published by Lars de Wildt, a researcher in conspiracy theories, religion and other beliefs in digital media culture at Belgian research university KU Leuven.

As a PhD student, de Wilde interviewed several former Assassin’s Creed developers in 2019. Today, he points to a new footnote detailing the story gleaned from these interviews. These great anthologies show how the Assassin’s Creed story has evolved over time – but also how one element of this canceled ending was recently revisited, more than a decade later.

“The original plan was put together based on interviews I conducted with AC original creator Patrice Deselitz and AC3 creative director Alex Hutchinson,” De Weldt wrote.

In short, Game Three will end with the resolution of the conflict in the present day, as Desmond Miles takes down Abstergo using the knowledge and skills common to all of his predecessors, including AC1’s Altair and AC2’s Ezio.

Speaking to Eurogamer today, AC3 Creative Director Alex Hutchinson mentioned discussing the matter with the student, and that the game’s previous plan had already focused on a big recent showdown with Desmond as its star.

“It’s also the end of the world in 2012, and Desmond Miles and Lucy start a new civilization somewhere else – like Adam and Eve,” de Wildt continued.

“That’s why she’s called Lucy, after Australopithecus afarensis,” Deslett said in an interview with de Wilde. As for where Desmond and Lucy were going, well… “Boom! It’s a terrifying spaceship!” Désilets responded.

Of course, by the time Assassin’s Creed finally made it to the third numbered entry, which was released back in 2012, plans had changed dramatically. AC3 still wraps up Desmond’s story and the particular day’s threat, but many other details have been changed.

The series’ success saw Ezio’s tenure embodied in its game trilogy, while Désilets longtime disappeared from Ubisoft after a public feud with company president Yves Guillemot.

Lucy’s character was already out of the series (Désilets once said he killed the character because Veronica Mars and Frozen actress Kristen Bell requested royalties for future appearances). Additionally, Abstergo has survived to remain the villain of the franchise in many games since then.

Most notably, of course, the series did not end, and its star did not leave Earth on a spaceship.

Why a spaceship? Fans have long pondered whether Isu, the series’ mysterious precursor race, is actually an extraterrestrial. Perhaps the Isu dungeon where Desmond saved the world was originally imagined as a secret spacecraft?

But there’s another cool element here – something that might be familiar to anyone who’s finished Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Look away now if you don’t want to read a discussion about that.

Valhalla’s ending sees Layla – Desmond’s successor as the series’ modern heroine – join Desmond’s soul in “The Gray” – a kind of digital dividing space where their consciousness lives. The images of the two contemporary stars of the series together are very evident in her allusion to Adam and Eve.

Valhalla has shared key development figures with those who have spoken in the past that Ubisoft has ideas for a definitive ending, including long-term Assassin’s Creed writer Darby McDevitt, who worked on Valhalla as narrative director. These ideas may have continued to include the idea of ​​Adam and Eve, so why did they appear again there?

“This story has an end,” McDevitt said in 2014. “But as history is open to us, we see the universe as a doctor writing something.” “There are many possibilities that we do not want to end the universe permanently, but we could have events that have ends.

“The ending of the Desmond trilogy has changed quite a bit but it was always meant to end that way. Then about two years ago we planned another story… [But] We’ve gone from specifically deciding when the story will end.”

It’s amazing to see how a series has adapted its plans for its broader narrative over more than a decade, resurrecting old ideas. Maybe a spaceship is still on the horizon someday?

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