'Assassin's Creed' Movie News: Original, Alternate Ending Reveals Callum As Lone Survivor
Game-to-movie adaptations have been a hit or miss in the industry and the "Assassin's Creed" movie wasn't a commercial hit. It was recently revealed, though, that the 2016 film that moviegoers saw had an alternate ending. The original one had a bleaker conclusion, where all of the Assassins, except the main character, died.
The 2016 "Assassin's Creed" movie was set to be the beginning of a franchise featuring the Ubisoft games. Although it was better than most game-to-movie adaptations, it only received 17 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and was not the commercial success that the producers expected. Recently, Collider revealed that the film had a different, original ending.
In the film that moviegoers saw, Callum (Michael Fassbender) and the other prisoners were able to escape the facility. The ending was going to set up the sequel stories, which would introduce modern assassins. The "Assassin's Creed" movie's alternate ending revealed that only Callum alone survived the escape. The rest of his team died.
VG24/7 reported that the test audience didn't like the original ending at all. So, "Assassin's Creed" movie director Justin Kurzel and editor Christopher Tellefsen decided to scrap it and film a new one, which was used in the 2016 movie. Tellefsen also said the test audience didn't want to see him Callum alone.
"They definitely wished for him to have a tribe," he said. So, instead of killing off the Assassins during the prisoner revolt at the Abstergo facility, they decided that the prisoners should live. The new ending meant that Callum wouldn't be alone in going up against Dr. Alan Rikkin (Jeremy Irons) in potential "Assassin's Creed" movie sequels.
The 2016 film was made on a $125 million budget and earned $240.5 million. Daphne Yang, CEO of the film's Taiwanese co-financier CatchPlay, said that the New Regency studio wanted to continue the franchise. Both "Assassin's Creed" movie endings offer an open doorway that could lead to future sequels. The director also indicated that he wanted to explore the Cold War in the next movie.