Assassin’s Creed Origins Cast Suggests Departure From Old Animus Story

Assassin’s Creed Origins is being sold as the rebirth of a stagnant franchise, and recent discoveries about the game’s voice cast solidify that claim. According to Bishop’s Kate Todd, she has not been asked to reprise her role. Is the Animus plot done for good?

These questions and more started being asked following Todd’s response to a fan question about Bishop’s return.

“I haven’t been asked at this time,” she tweeted , and thanked the fan for his inquiry. If she hasn’t been called by now, chances are she may never be.

For those who haven’t been following the Assassin’s Creed lore too closely over the past couple of games , this exclusion is a pretty big deal. Bishop was basically the linchpin of the entire modern-day story in 2014’s Assassin’s Creed Unity and 2015’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. As a member of the Assassin Order and handler for a group called the Initiates, she essentially guided the player through their ancestral journey and provided the central motivation for the plot to continue. The Templars were looking for the Pieces Of Eden, and it was her job to reconstruct memories to find them first.

This tug-of-war between opposing sides was fairly well appreciated by critics as one of the series’ best present-day arcs, but the fact that Todd is not involved with Origins suggests Ubisoft has, at the very least, decided to go a different direction with the past complex web of familial relationships. To us, that would signify that the Animus will either play no role in Assassin’s Creed Origins or a very different one than we may be expecting.

If impressions from the E3 2017 show floor are any indication, the Animus definitely seems to have a much quieter role this time around. While menus and UI elements still have a futuristic aesthetic that suggests a possible link to some sort of technology, there is no point in the actual gameplay that shows the Animus is active. Franchise mainstays like fading graphical effects as the player fails are nowhere to be found. If it’s in the game at all, its importance has been visibly diminished

If the established lore is to continue, however, a fitting subject for analysis might be William Miles from an earlier point in his life. As the father of the series’ main protagonist, Desmond Miles, William’s lifelong history with the Order is technically where this franchise begins. What better outlet for exploration could there be for a game called Assassin’s Creed Origins?

If you want to know what Todd’s up to, she just so happened to release a brand-new Country-genre EP called One. It’s a major departure from her work on Assassin's Creed, but, for the legions of fans who’ve been put off by the series’ forays into modern times, that’s probably good news.

Assassin’s Creed Origins comes to Xbox One, PS4 and PC on Oct. 27.

Are to happy to see Ubisoft taking a new direction with the Animus in Assassin’s Creed Origins? Tell us in the comments section!