Last week, Narrative Director on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and a writer in many roles for the series at large, Darby MeDevitt, announced his departure from Ubisoft. He hasn’t confirmed what he’s moving onto at the time of writing, but it’s probably something in a similar role. He could also be moving on to become a full-time author since he’s been writing and releasing books in his spare time too. Everyone loves Darby because he’s the ultimate lore master for the Assassin’s Creed series. Now he’s gone though, what does that mean for the future of the series?
Before anyone panics, the lore is almost certainly safe. Darby will have been working on a huge Assassin’s Creed lore binder for years, and that binder is going to be safely accessible at Ubisoft forever. This is what future stories will draw upon, and it’s what future games will rely on for making their stories fit with the rest. However, now all of the ideas that Darby has in his head for the series will go unwritten. They’ll never be implemented, and I think that’s a massive shame.
Fans have always asked Darby questions online, and he’s been very happy to answer. For example, when someone asked him why the Isu never went to space, but Humans did, he put it out there that Humans put probes out first. Maybe, as their creations, Humans are the probes that the Isu would have used to send an initial venture out into space. This alone is incredibly interesting, but it also shows how Darby’s depth of knowledge allows him to give fans answers that fit within the lore. He’s always got an answer ready, and that’s largely because he wrote everything in Assassin’s Creed. At least a good chunk of it.
The future probably isn’t bleak for this series though. Ubisoft values this IP, and they’re not going to allow something stupid to happen to the lore. That would kill the next game and fans would abandon it. No one wants to have half the lore retconned because the next writing team couldn’t work around Darby’s knowledge. The writers on the next game will be just as exceptional, and they’ll make sure that the lore survives and expands over time.
