Toby Wallace is warming up for a leap of faith, as the Australian actor is gearing up to portray a leading role in Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of the flagship Ubisoft stealth-action video game, Assassin’s Creed.
As announced by Netflix’s Tudum, the 30-year-old actor, who’s best known for his roles in 2019’s Babyteeth and 2024’s The Bikeriders, alongside joining the cast of Euphoria Season Three, will be the show’s first series regular, although details about his character remain firmly under wraps for now.
Helmed by showrunners Roberto Patino (Westworld) and David Wiener (Halo), Assassin’s Creed marks the first live-action series adaptation of the gaming franchise, and according to Tudum, will centre on “the secret war between two shadowy factions — one set on determining mankind’s future through control and manipulation, the other fighting to preserve free will. The series will follow its characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity’s destiny.”
While its plot remains vague for now, the series does have an expansive backlog of gaming lore to choose from, as the Assassin’s Creed video game franchise has grown to become a household name in the scene since its debut in 2007.
The games explore the conflict between two secret orders, the Assassins and the Templars, with individuals in the present day using a machine known as the Animus to access the genetic memories of Assassins in different perious of history such as Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad in the Third Crusade, Ratonhnhaké:ton (aka Connor) in the American Revolutionary War or Basim Ibn Ishaq in 9th-century Baghdad, as they track down mysterious artifacts left by a precursor race known as Pieces of Eden.
The Assassin’s Creed series has spawned 14 games over the years, giving the Netflix series no shortage of source material to choose from, with its most recent entry being this year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which brought the franchise to the fan-requested setting of Japan in the Sengoku period and let players choose between playing as the Samurai Yasuke or the Shinobu Naoe, although this setting seems unlikely for the adaptation.
Either way, Netflix has a huge undertaking ahead of it, as the upcoming series follows the lukewarm reception to the franchise’s first live-action adaptation, the 2016 Assassin’s Creed film, so it remains to be seen if the series can live up to the high expectations of franchise fans, and if it will be deserving of a place within the Brotherhood.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
