The first trailer for this year’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie debuted on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday night.
The film, which stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, is set in a universe similar to the one in the game series, but features a new set of characters. The movie follows Callum Lynch (Fassbender), who is kidnapped by the series’ villainous corporation, Abstergo Industries. Abstergo captures Lynch to put him in the Animus, a virtual reality machine, so he can relive the memories of his ancestor, a member of the Spanish Inquisition from the 15th century. Based on the trailer, both Cotillard and co-star Jeremy Irons seem to play Lynch’s captors, Abstergo scientists who operate the Animus. The film also stars The Wire veteran Michael K. Williams.
The trailer features a lot of fast-paced action and plenty of assassinating, including a shot of Lynch jumping off a building and falling in the game series’ iconic “air assassination” pose.
While most of the trailer will be familiar to fans — you can see how the story was inspired by the original AC — not everything is identical to the original series. The Animus, the machine Abstergo uses to allow people to relive memories, for example, is no longer a bed or chair, but a set of robot arms. It also seems like “the bleeding effect,” which allows Animus users to bring back their experience (and assassin training) to their modern selves, will play a larger role.
20th Century Fox also released the film’s theatrical poster, which you can check out below.
Fox seems to have high hopes for the film, given that reports suggest the studio has already greenlit a sequel. Game series publisher Ubisoft may also have high hopes for the film, as it will not release a new Assassin’s Creed game this year. It will be first year Ubisoft has gone without releasing a new Assassin’s Creed since 2009.
Assassin’s Creed (the movie) opens December 21.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.