According to the rumor mill, the next Assassin's Creed game isn't slated to release until 2022, but regardless of when it comes out, there's one common fan demand: the return of a legitimate Assassin character. What this means is truly up to interpretation, but it is easy enough to see how the latest characters to grace a cover have diverged from hooded figures like Altair and Ezio. In Assassin's Creed Origins, this was Bayek who would go on alongside Amunet to found the Hidden Ones; while this is a precursor to the modern assassins, Bayek played and acted differently than what one would expect. MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD for Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
With Assassin's Creed Odyssey, fans were even further removed from the Assassins and Templars, as Alexios and Kassandra were not involved in any real way. They certainly were not Assassins. With Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Eivor perhaps operates in between both worlds: hunting down the Order of the Ancients (precursor Templars) for the Hidden Ones but never fully committing to their cause. As such, fans have been wanting another Assassin character like Altair, Ezio, Connor, Arno, and so on to take center stage. Again, this is up to interpretation, but this likely means having more focus on assassinating baddies, tailing and tracking enemies, the ability to parkour like a proper Assassin, and above all, an actual dedication to the creed.
To want this from the Assassin's Creed franchise is rather obvious; however, it's not a leap of faith either to think that a return-to-form, at least in this regard, is appropriate for the next game. Indeed, the potential answer for that lies in the structure of the franchise itself.
Assassin's Creed Subfranchises
There are quit a few mainline games and even more spin-off titles, so while it isn't exactly "neat," there's an organization of the titles. Most commonly, fans may know this as the Ezio trilogy, the Kenway Saga, and the Initiate duology. Now, there is certainly some overlay and stretches here, as one could consider the first AC game as important to the Ezio trilogy/making up the greater heritage collection, Assassin's Creed 4 could be included in the initiate games thus expanding it from a duology, and so on. However, the big picture remains: the Ezio stories, the Kenway stories, and the Initiate storylines all existed before Assassin's Creed Origins.
Looking at these, it's clear some name, family, or idea connect them all. The Ezio trilogy is focused on Ezio's story, the Assassin vs. Templar conflict, and Desmond connect all of these. The Kenway family, search for Isu artifacts, and revolution across the globe (as the French Revolution of AC Unity can arguably tie into this subfranchise as well) are the focus on the Kenway Saga. The initiate duology is a little less connected on the past level, instead re-examining these core ideas with the player interjected from the modern day.
Moving on, players get to what many have thus-far called the Ancient Saga or duology, due to both Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Odyssey having ancient settings. However, these settings are no longer a good-founded way to insert these games in the larger franchise. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is obviously connected with them through the modern-day and through Layla's story, but it also does something else: it revives a lot, almost literally. It's not connected to them through familial lines like the Kenway Saga, through a particular name like Ezio, but an idea: connecting the pieces of the past.
With this set of games in particular, it's clearly a saga. Layla Hassan's body may be gone, but as she joins Desmond in the Grey, her story is not over. The new game, as it stands, is likely to follow this story and this connection with Basim as the continued main character. So, while the franchise has choices to make, both show how the style and story are literally moving forward.
Assassin's Creed: 1000 AD
As aforementioned, in terms of style and content, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is very much a bridge. It is taking everything from the franchise's past and moving it forward, which inevitably means it butts heads with itself. Assassin's Creed Valhalla and the original AC game are roughly 300 years apart. Valhalla set up the organization of the Templars, who historically speaking, form in 1119 AD. As such, truly, the 1000 ADs are all important to the franchise, as this is where the past-conflict of the Hidden Ones vs. The Order of the Ancients becomes the modern-day Assassin vs. Templar Conflict. And if the franchise is bringing the past forward with a new modern-day telling, what is better than having a subfranchise which began with its oldest origins and expanded on all of its old history and lore and bringing it to the door stop of the first game.
Of course, this is just speculation. There's a lot in the franchise to decipher, but it's hard to imagine the game going back from its current momentum. It's hard to imagine them trying to wrap Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla up together as a neat little trilogy, with its last moments wrapped up in AC Valhalla's DLC. No, instead, it seems likely that Valhalla operated as a bridge so that the next game could cross it. It's the most logical connection for a subfranchise to share one idea, moving from what was one beginning to another, and showing the full history behind a conflict before putting players in the shoes of a new Assassin.
For the franchise to arrive come within 100 years of 1000 AD (which is an approximation) to complete turn back and not finish the forward motion doesn't really add much. It all remains to be seen, but when thinking about the core idea of this subfranchise, how it is moving and connecting history (with Odyssey DLC even connecting it directly to Origins), and how Eivor comes so close to actually being a Hidden One, it would be hard-press for the subfranchise not to connect all of these ideas in one protagonist: a character operating as the Hidden Ones rebrand as Assassins, wherever in the world that it may be.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.