‘Assassin’s Creed: The Movie’ Unleashes New Weapons Teaser

Shooting on the Assassin’s Creed movie is well underway, and it was only a matter of time before some interesting images leaked from the film set, either officially or through more nefarious means. Luckily, today was a case of the former, as Assassin’s Creed’s head of content, Azaïzia Aymar, posted some teasing weapon images on his Twitter account — and needless to say, the hardware looks very intriguing.

The images reveal what appear to be two Templar swords, one with the traditional cross of the Knight’s Templar and another with a bearded man suspected to be Hugues de Payens, the initial Grand Master of the Templar Order. There are also references to Abstergo, a multinational corporate conglomerate that acts as a front for the modern day Templar Order in the series. The film is quickly becoming a very faithful adaptation of the popular video game franchise.

The images can be seen here.

Look at what I found on #assassinscreedmovie set! Those Abstergo guys just love Templars! pic.twitter.com/0DBKL50Xym

— Aymar Azaïzia (@AymarMtl) November 4, 2015

Michael Fassbender is one of many producers on the film and will be playing the dual lead roles of 15th century Spanish assassin/brotherhood member, Aguilar, and modern day assassin Callum Lynch. Marion Cotillard is co-starring in the movie with Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, and Michael K. Williams. The film will be directed by Justin Kurzel, who also directed Fassbender and Cotillard in Macbeth, which was released in the UK at the beginning of October. From the set images and reports of a fluent, easy production, the film seems to be in good shape.

Fans of the games will also be happy that the film is coming from an original story with new characters. The Assassin’s Creed series is a detailed, complex, multi-layered series of games, so the decision to leave them be and focus on an original script will be refreshing. With nine main games and several supporting add-ons and materials, the script had plenty of material to pay tribute to. The risk of rehashing one of these stories, which are adored by fans of the games, would have been a severe misstep, one many studios have run afoul of in the past. Video game adaptations have a bad reputation because of this, and only a few films have come away unscathed by this negative following, despite many of them being highly profitable.

Even the locals and holiday goers in Malta are getting involved in production. One such person provided an ongoing report on Reddit as he watched the crew organize and film one of Assassin’s Creed’s most famous set pieces — the Leap of Faith.

“Finally, and most fun, was a shot just outside the church. The lead b—– in black was hanging from a frame, suspended from a crane, by his hands and feet. He then drops to his arms and drops into the back end of a hay cart, landing more or less on his feet — I suspect this was a ‘controlled’ fall or jump from the roof of the church.

It was great to watch and it looked like it had gone horribly wrong, shattering the back end of the cart — almost missing it completely. It was only the total lack of reaction from the assembled crew that gave the game away!”

So, Assassin’s Creed: The Movie is smoothly rolling through production. Will the film live up to the popularity and critical acclaim of the video game series? We shall find out in 2016.

Assassin’s Creed will soar into U.S cinemas on December 21, 2016.

[Image via 20th Century Fox]