And then with Darby we worked on the Dark Horse prequel comics which are canon and telling what happens before Valhalla, we worked on the novel with Matt Kirby so we could have some recurring characters, all of that stuff we built together. So when Darby pitched us along with Ashraf Ismail for Valhalla what happened next was we worked together telling them what kind of projects we could do around that. Assassin's Creed: Blood Brothers.įor the game, we usually let the narrative and creative director run the show and we're talking with them so we know everything we're going to do we're going to do together.
It's the projects, the TV series, the movie which I worked on. And then it separated into me doing everything that's happening on the transmedia side, which is massive. That was super fun but super tough with all the projects and everyone involved. What're your thoughts on that?Īzaïzia: In the past we had a former team which I was part of - and I was kind of the gatekeeper for the Assassin's Creedverse. But at least it gives information on events which happened in the past that weren't ever really explained before.Īs the Assassin's Creed franchise gets bigger and more complex, fans have called for a loremaster to look after everything, and on Valhalla, narrative director Darby McDevitt often popped up to answer queries. We haven't done that yet and I don't know if we'll ever do it. It could be a way for us to make previous non-canon things canonical - we could say it was in another universe, in a simulation. So what we said from the get-go was that the Animus was based on Isu tech - it's a simulation machine - and that probably the Isu have used tons of simulations to consider what might happen and left a few messages hoping the chances are someone like Desmond will see them. If you ask yourself, how were Minerva or Juno able to leave messages for Desmond in the present knowing that centuries after he would be the one to receive it? There had to be some kind of device so they would be able to anticipate what was coming. We started thinking about something like that very early on, and there are traces of it in earlier games. what's your view on all that? A forthcoming Assassin's Creed: Valhalla graphic novel.Īzaïzia: Well, as you've said it's something we've created and I won't shy away from it because it exists! It's something we've created! But it's kind of the other way around.
You mentioned a multiverse and I have to ask here about the ending of Valhalla - spoiler warning! Fans have theorised the Yggdrasil machine might open up the franchise to exploring multi-universe stories, or making some non-canon stuff canon.
What we're doing - and it's super hard with so many things going on at the same time! - is that we always acknowledge what has been saidĪlready with retconning at absolute minimum.
And as much as possible, we want to avoid becoming a cross-media franchise like DC or Marvel with a multiverse or multiple existences with multiple versions of Bruce Wayne, or whoever is Batman, where if you're watching Gotham or playing the Arkham series you're not playing the same character. It's one of the big takes we have on Assassin's Creed - and I'm old, I started out 12 years ago now on Assassin's Creed - we always try to maintain consistency, so everything we we are producing is part of an eco-system, part of a world we are building. But most of the time, and most of this year, everything will be canon. It's more how the project has been developed and if, for example, a super famous artist has given their own take on something, we'll give them carte blanche but it may not be canon as we want them to be able to express themselves. It's not the category which will make the project canon - and most of what we're producing is canon. Let's start off with the projects you've got coming this year and the new Classics/Chronicles/Originals branding you're introducing - what's the thinking behind all this?īouvier: This year will be especially dense so for us it was important to make it more understandable for fans, readers, listeners the kind of stories they'll get.Īnd here's a question which you'll probably hate: are these all canon? Fans care! (I care.) Assassin's Creed: The Ming Storm.Īzaïzia: It's my job to label them as canon or not, which is super important for fans.