Netflix's Assassin's Creed series loses showrunner

The upcoming Netflix adaptation of the Assassin's Creed series has lost showrunner Jeb Stewart, which could bode badly for the series.

The Netflix adaptation of Assassin's Creed has officially lost its producer. The live-action series will bring the battle between the Templars and the Brotherhood and the world of Assassin's Creed to the small screen, serving as a potential reboot of the series following the failure of the Assassin's Creed film. The franchise itself centers on an eternal battle between two warring factions that have relied on manipulation and assassination to change the world since the days of ancient Egypt. Leveraging technology that allows them to view the lives of former Assassins, the modern-day Brotherhood learns from their ancestors and uses their knowledge in an effort to defeat the ever-mighty Templars.

While Assassin's Creed has always had an interesting premise, it has struggled to accommodate the adaptation. Netflix's Assassin's Creed has to avoid the film's mistakes by simplifying the story and making time jumps more palatable, a difficult prospect in a franchise that revolves entirely around jumping timelines. Unfortunately, Assassin's Creed is leaving its producer Jeb Stuart (Vikings: Hall of Valor, Die Hard), who has left the project. In an interview with Collider, he explained why he moved on and He wants the series to move forward. Check out his quote below.

"I think it was a little bit of a move of executives from LA to London, and it allowed the London group who, unfortunately, had to inherit my vision of what it was instead of getting to develop their own vision. So I think that's fair. I know it's going to be great whenever it comes out. I think the Ubisoft guys are fantastic. I think it's a terrific franchise. It was just a good, mutual time to move on for both sides."

Why Video Game Adaptations Tend To Struggle

Assassin's Creed was not the only game to experience confusion during its adaptation. The Mario series suffered a disastrous adaptation in 1993's Super Mario Bros., and Hitman was adapted into a Hitman: Agent 47 movie, which was also panned by critics. Uncharted got a movie adaptation, which came and went. With great fanfare. Other video game movies have come and gone, and Netflix has seen many video game projects of its own. Unfortunately, very few actually succeed, which leads to a lot of questions as to why these ideas work so well in one medium and fail in another.

The disappointing reality is that video games allow for tens of hours of storytelling that every movie needs to whittle it down to bite size. The Last of Us would benefit from being a TV series with hours of story and character development, whereas the original Assassin's Creed movie condensed 15 hours of gameplay into just two hours. While games can regularly jump between timelines every few hours, movies that condense the same timeline need to jump every ten minutes Has the same effect, which can be jarring. Even the screenwriter for The Best of Both Worlds discussed the challenges of video game adaptations, since so many of the stories required full cuts. For a series like Assassin's Creed with hundreds of hours of gameplay, it might be too much to fit in properly.

Everything We Know About Netflix's Assassin's Creed

Announced in October 2020 that Assassin's Creed episodes won't be as short as the movies, which will be a huge boon for the production. So far, no casting information has been released, as it seems that even the producers of the project seem to be in business. According to Ubisoft's Netflix Assassin's Creed update, even though Assassin's Creed is "still in the early stages of development," the loss of an experienced producer like Jeb Stewart could affect the project's development. After the last Assassin's Creed live-action adaptation, there's always good reason to be concerned.