I've Been Talking Everyone's Ear Off For Months About Netflix's Assassin's Creed Show, And The Latest Update Has Me Even More Excited

I’m not the biggest gamer in the world, but I do love playing the Assassin’s Creed franchise. I especially love Assassin’s Creed 2. The latest announcement from Netflix that the upcoming Assassin’s Creed TV show is going to shoot in Italy has me really excited. You see, I’ve been talking up the series, which will be available with a Netflix subscription, because I believe that the 2016 movie was a poor representation of the game, and a show is a much better format for the game. I’ve also been a staunch supporter of the series adapting the second game in the franchise. Maybe, just maybe, my wish will be granted.

Could This Announcement Mean The Show Will Be Set In Renaissance Italy?

If you’re reading this, you’re likely already a fan of the game series, but if not, here’s a little background. Each game takes place in a time and place somewhere in history. The first one, for example, takes place in the Southern Levant during the Middle Ages. The most recent, Assassin's Creed Shadows, is set in 16th-century Japan. The games have seen entries in Revolutionary-era America, ancient Greece, early 18th-century Caribbean (The Golden Age of Piracy), and other famous eras.

As I said, my favorite installment thus far is Assassin’s Creed 2, which is set during the Italian Renaissance in the late 1400s. It takes place across what is now Northern Italy, and its follow-up, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, is a direct sequel set mostly in Rome in the early 1500s. To date, these are the only entries in the series set in Italy. With the announcement last week that the show would begin production in Italy in early 2026, I hope that means the video game adaptation will take its inspiration from Assassin’s Creed 2.

Mixing History With Action And Adventure

As I said, I’m not a huge gamer, and I think what made these games appealing to me is the combination of really fun gameplay with actual history. This series really scratches that itch, because while the stories are fictional, real places and real people from history are incorporated. In Assassin’s Creed 2, there are NPCs like Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolò Machiavelli, Caterina Sforza, and the Medicis.

One of the flaws of the movie, I thought, was that instead of sticking with historical figures from one time period, the film pulled from various games across centuries of time. It just didn’t work (along with a slew of other stuff, if I’m honest). I guess this is just another hopeful wish of mine that the show sticks with one time period. If it’s not the Renaissance, so be it, but I hope it at least stays in one place and time.

We still don’t know when the show will drop, but again, my fingers are crossed that we’ll see it sometime towards the end of the year on the 2026 TV schedule. Until then, I’ll be replaying Assassin’s Creed 2 (again).