After teasing the rumoured Assassin’s Creed 4 remake, the lead voice actor has been given a rap on the knuckles by Ubisoft.
A remake of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag has felt like an open secret for years now. Although Ubisoft has not formally confirmed it as part of its future plans for the series, reports of its existence have made the rounds since 2023.
Another rumour, from earlier this year, claimed the remake will be out this November and statue maker Pure Arts appeared to hint at this, saying ‘there is something going on with Edward’, referring to Black Flag protagonist Edward Kenway.
Even the character’s own voice actor, Matt Ryan, contributed to the rumblings, just a couple of months ago, although he’s now revealed this almost got him into serious trouble with Ubisoft.
For context, in late June, a video clip made the rounds on social media, of Ryan speaking with a fan about Black Flag at a convention. Ryan simply asked the fan if they had beaten the game, before following up with, ‘Well you may have to beat it again.’
The Assassin’s Creed community naturally took this as a further hint at a Black Flag remake, but when Ryan was quizzed about it during a more recent convention, he bluntly denied any knowledge about it.
When the clip from June was brought up, Ryan claimed he wasn’t aware he was being recorded at the time and he’s now keeping quiet because Ubisoft threatened him with legal action.
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‘When that happened, someone was [recording me], and I was being very free and open, but I didn’t know that they actually were recording me on their phone,’ explained Ryan. ‘And then the company threatened to sue me. So [now] I say nothing.’
Ironically, this only serves as further proof that a Black Flag remake is in the works, or Ubisoft wouldn’t bother to threaten him.
Voice actors are usually bound by NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) for unannounced video games. It’s why Rockstar’s voice actors always keep their mouths shut when pressed about appearing in a new GTA or Red Dead Redemption game.
Often, they aren’t even told what game they’re voicing for and are just as surprised by announcements as the rest of the public.
As for what has been claimed about the remake, it’s said to be in the works at Ubisoft Singapore (the same studio behind Ubisoft’s other pirate game, Skull & Bones) and will see changes made to certain gameplay aspects as well as its visuals.
While Ubisoft is keeping schtum on the remake, it did almost admit it plans to port Assassin’s Creed Shadows to the Nintendo Switch 2. Although it was strangely absent from the recent Nintendo Direct, which focused solely on third party games.
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