The Assassin’s Creed movie wasn’t supposed to be bad. It was going to be the rare video game adaptation that got the source material right. Boasting a talented arthouse director, Justin Kurzel, and one of the most exciting leading men of the era, Michael Fassbender, this was supposed to kick off a fantasy action franchise that would put anything else based on video games to shame. Alas, it didn’t work out that way, with the film being panned critically and only grossing $54 million domestically, posting a loss for 20th Century Fox that ranged from $75-100 million.
So what went wrong? The film should have been a hit, with it being based on the wildly popular series of games by Ubisoft. Unfortunately, as good as they were, all the ingredients were added to a sour recipe. The Assassin’s Creed movie would be one of the last significant franchise attempts 20th Century Fox would release before selling to Disney, who promptly cancelled any notion of a sequel, even if one seemed unlikely. Directed Justin Kurzel would return to indies, with his The True Story of the Kelly Gang and Nitram playing to raves. In many ways, the person who would suffer the most from Assassin’s Creed would be star Michael Fassbender. While a great actor, it was one of several big-budget star vehicles he was in that tanked, alongside The Snowman, X-Men: Dark Phoenix and Alien: Covenant. Since then, he’s been largely offscreen, with two completed movies, Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins and Kung Fury 2 sitting on the shelf for a number of years. He’s hopefully primed for a comeback once Waititi’s film comes out, plus he’s got David Fincher’s The Killer, but in this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie, we look at all the ways his most ambitious grab at big-screen stardom went awry.
This episode is written by Daniel Woburn, narrated by Mathew Plate, edited by Diane Baldwin and produced by Ben Cantler. Watch a previous episode below and let us know if the Assassin’s Creed movie is as bad as they say.