‘Assassin’s Creed’ Netflix series is directed by Johan Renck
Netflix’s upcoming live-action series “Assassin’s Creed” – which has already expanded its main cast, with Toby Wallace (“Euphoria”), Lola Petticrew (“Say Nothing”) recently revealed as leads and Zachary Hart (“Slow Horses”) and Laura Marcus (“Death by Lightning”) as series regulars – has now found a director.
Johan Renck, the Swedish filmmaker best known for directing HBO’s miniseries “Chernobyl,” for which he won an Emmy, will direct the show. Variety can reveal.
Based on the phenomenally successful time-traveling video game franchise, “Assassin’s Creed” was first announced in July as the first series to be developed under Netflix’s deal with Ubisoft, signed in 2020.
Plot details are being kept under wraps for now, but the logline says the series will be “centered on the secret war between two shadowy factions – one focused on determining humanity’s future through control and manipulation, while the other fights to preserve free will. The series follows the characters through pivotal historical events as they battle to shape the fate of humanity.”
Roberto Patino and David Wiener serve as creators, showrunners and executive producers. Ubisoft Film & Television’s Gerard Guillemot, Margaret Boykin, Austin Dill and Genevieve Jones serve as executive producers, as does Matt O’Toole.
The first ‘Assassin’s Creed’ game, which explored the centuries-long war between the rival secret orders of the Assassins and the Templars, debuted in 2007 and became an instant hit. Since then, 13 more entries in the franchise have been released, the most recent being “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows,” released in 2025, with a total of over 230 million copies sold to date. In 2016, a film adaptation was released starring Michael Fassbender.
In addition to ‘Chernobyl’, Renck has also directed the series ‘The Last Panther’, plus episodes of ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Vikings’, ‘Bates Motel’ and ‘Halt and Catch Fire’. He has previously worked with Netflix, directing the first two episodes of the 2015 series “Bloodline” and last year’s sci-fi film “Spaceman,” starring Adam Sandler and based on the novel “Spaceman of Bohemia.”
Speak with Variety Last year ahead of the Berlinale world premiere of “Spaceman,” Renck said that after the success of 2019’s “Chernobyl,” a critical and commercial hit that won numerous Emmy, Golden Globe and BAFTA TV awards, he was “determined to quit” and instead wanted to open a “really damn cool restaurant” in Brooklyn.
