Over-saturation and repetitiveness may now be the hallmarks of the Assassin's Creed saga, but it never used to be this way. Indeed, even when the franchise what at the peak of its yearly release schedule, the developers at Ubisoft managed to produce a gem of a title in Black Flag - by far the most innovative of AC titles yet. In the role of the game's morally ambiguous Assassin, Edward Kenway, was Matt Ryan. A relative newcomer to the acting scene, Ryan has since attained much praise for his role on the unfortunately cancelled Constantine, where he played the eponymous occult protagonist - himself also an anti-hero. It is his role as Edward Kenway however that marked geek culture's first introduction to Ryan's talent, and with such a brilliant performance being conveyed, it'd be hard to find a better one. Protagonists of the AC series have always been anti-heroes consumed by a questionable doctrine, but the Welsh Assassin in question brought that front and centre to the narrative's progression. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cru5cms4_1Q Edward was a pirate more concerned with finding wealth and pleasure than assuming responsibility as an Assassin, but this made his character arc in the title all the more intriguing as a consequence, which is pretty remarkable considering the slew of emotionally bankrupt caricatures the series has conjured up since.
Resident movie guy at WhatCulture who used to be Comics Editor. Thinks John Carpenter is the best. Likes Hellboy a lot. Can usually be found talking about Dad Movies on his Twitter at @EwanRuinsThings.
