The first trailer for 20th Century Fox's live action Assassin's Creed film debuts, detailing the many changes from Ubisoft's source material the movie has made.

Expectations for the Assassin's Creed franchise have likely never been higher. In prior years, the fact that Ubisoft boldly claimed that no Assassin's Creed games in 2016 would make the upcoming movie even better by comparison might not have been difficult to justify. However, hot on the heels of an Assassin's Creed: Syndicate game that breathed new life into the series, such a statement has served only to increase fan expectation for the Assassin's Creed film.

Ubisoft and film producer 20th Century Fox have been hard at work maintaining that expectation and translating it into palpable anticipation, between the tantalizing release schedule of movie stills or the $1,200 Assassin's Creed movie ticket combo that includes a replica crossbow. Today, however, the Assassin's Creed movie marketing endeavor began in earnest, as 20th Century Fox released the debut trailer for the upcoming film based upon Ubisoft's incredibly popular stealth-based adventure game.

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The trailer demonstrates what Michael Fassbender's role as the movie's protagonist will entail, as the versatile actor navigates between roles as the Callum Lynch of the film's present and the assassin Aguilar in 15th Century Spain. While it is abundantly clear that Assassin's Creed will borrow heavily from the first game's Desmond and Altair narratives, there are some key differences as well. Besides the difference in time period for Altair and Aguilar, Fassbender's Lynch appears to have a much darker personality, or at least background, than Ubisoft's Desmond.

The debut trailer also flashed scenes of combat that looked as fluid as fans of the Assassin's Creed series have come to expect, and those planning on seeing the movie can also expect a heavy dose of the parkour and free-running elements found in Ubisoft's game series as well. Just in case gamers wanted a shot at scaling the buildings Fassbender climbs in the film, however, Ubisoft will also be releasing a VR "experience" based around the Assassin's Creed film later this year, although details on the project are scarce as of this writing.

Ultimately, it appears that the Assassin's Creed film will have a noticeable impact in a few different mediums. On top of the stellar debut trailer that is already garnering high praise, Ubisoft is also toying with the idea of rescinding the Assassin's Creed annual release schedule in favor of more developed and cohesive games. While that notion might have already been in the works, it likely didn't hurt that the Assassin's Creed movie forced Ubisoft into examining the feasibility of such a drastic change to its current business model.

What do you think of Fassbender's performance in the Assassin's Creed trailer? Is it enough to convince you to go see the movie on opening day? Let us know in the comments below.

Assassin's Creed will debut in theatres on December 21, 2016.

Source: YouTube