New Assassin’s Creed Poster: Multiple Michael Fassbenders

Can Assassin’s Creed break the “curse” of video game adaptations? It has the talent involved to pull it off, with an impressive cast led by Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, and Jeremy Irons. Director Justin Kurzel (Macbeth) has also shown a flair for compelling, visually stunning cinema. The film’s trailers suggest a spectacle of Inquisition-era action and combat, which the video game franchise is known for.

Fassbender, of course, has been the main focus of the marketing push for Assassin’s Creed. The movie tells the story of career criminal Callum Lynch, who is forced into a revolutionary experiment that discovers the memories of his ancestor, Aguilar de Nerha. He then assumes his ancestor’s abilities as a member of a secret society of assassins during the Spanish Inquisition. In his fight against the Templar organization in both the past and present-day, Fassbender will surely be the driving force of Assassin’s Creed.

A previous teaser poster for the movie had Fassbender standing tall while sharing space with the other major players, but the newest poster puts Fassbender alone front-and-center. Featuring a kaleidoscopic rendering of Fassbender’s multiple appearances in the movie, the poster gives a visual sense of the complexities of Fassbender’s character as he assumes the identities and abilities of his ancestors while also remaining grounded in the present world.

The mirror effect between the poster’s top and bottom halves is coupled with the phrase, “Your destiny is in your blood.” The new poster illustrates the movie’s apparent themes of identifying with your own past and the sense that you’re inescapably bound to your ancestors. If there’s any actor who is capable of delivering a strong performance while straddling two separate worlds and identities, it’s Fassbender.

The cinematic adaptation of Assassin’s Creed appears to feature the same fascination with the history of the Spanish Inquisition that most of Ubisoft’s popular video game franchise has demonstrated. But the trailers have mostly depicted what is expected to be a large number of thrilling action sequences – and record-breaking stunts – featuring Fassbender in action. The new poster, which surrounds the star with a variety of weapons, drives that point home.

However, Kurzel had an advantage of drawing from legendary source material in adapting Shakespeare’s Macbeth for the big screen. Assassin’s Creed will almost certainly be a visually resplendent source of spectacular action, but it remains to be seen if the story itself is up to par with the rest. Still, there’s reason to be confident that the acting will be top-notch with Fassbender leading the way and a talented group of actors supporting him.