Although Michael Fassbender stars in and acts as a co-producer for the Assassin's Creed film, he recently admitted that before he took on the project, he never played the original video game.
That might come as a surprise, considering the popularity of the Assassin's Creed franchise, which has resulted in over 70 million copies of the games sold worldwide, along with its stories spreading into comic books, short animated films and novels.
Assassin's Creed is an open world action adventure video game series that lets players take on the role of an assassin during a critical time in world history. In the game, the assassins take out key players in history and politics to help shape the world as we know it. The premise is that players are actually characters in the modern world, using computer technology known as the animus that allows them to revisit the memories of an assassin who lived in the past.
Fassbender signed on to act in and co-produce a film based on the franchise in 2012. Filming began earlier this year: recent set photos from Spain showed Fassbender in costume as the movie's main character.
In spite of the game's popularity, though, Fassbender never picked up a controller before agreeing to work on the project.
"I hadn't played it before these guys approached me," said Fassbender to Entertainment Weekly. "I've played it since [being offered the job] mainly to get an idea of the physicality of the character. We're striving to find something special. We believe the whole concept around it is special and want to service that the best we can."
Fassbender understands the need to get details from the movies as accurate as possible because the fans of the franchise are so passionate about it. That's probably why instead of retreading stories already told in the games, the movie introduces a new character, Callum Lynch, who steps into the animus to relive the memories of his assassin ancestor, Aguilar, who lived in 15th century Spain.
Assassins have a special way of maneuvering in the world of Assassin's Creed, something Fassbender had to learn while filming. This includes a lot of parkour movements like climbing up buildings, jumping along rooftops, stealth and taking out targets quickly.
"A lot of the stuff in the game is parkour," he said. "Blades attached to his wrists. It's about getting in close to the target, close quarters fighting."
The Assassin's Creed movie opens in theaters on Dec. 21, 2016. Meanwhile, the latest title in the video game franchise, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is available now on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
