The 'Assassin's Creed' movie has just launched in theaters and boasts a cast of Academy Award nominees and winners such as Jeremy Irons, Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. While promoting the film the actors have given a few more details regarding the characters they play.
Irons portrays the main villain of the film, Alan Rikkin, who is described as one of the leaders of the Templars trying to discover the location of the Apple of Eden. The actor revealed in an interview that the character is highly dependent on his daughter Sofia, played by Cotillard.
"I think she's serving a very important function for him because I think he knows that she's brighter than him, less jaded than him," Irons told IGN. "He's just doing his best, doing his job, and up against a very hard wall. I think he relies very much on his daughter's work."
The actor further reveals that Rikkin knows he has to find the Apple of Eden quickly and that Sofia's program, which utilizes the Animus machine to dive into the memories of people in the lineage of Assassins, may be the only solution. Otherwise, the facility he runs is in danger of being shut down.
Fassbender, speaking to Empire Magazine (via NME), explained that the film tackles a theme of legacy and what a person leaves behind for future generations. This is shown primarily through the fact that the movie instills the concept of memories being passed down through DNA.
The actor further explained that he had spoken with the developers of the game series, from Ubisoft, and was convinced due to how scientifically probable it was for memories to be passed down. Director Justin Kurzel also explained to him that the movie was also about a sense of belonging, of "root and ancestry."
"Assassin's Creed" is set in the same universe as the video games and follows Callum Lynch (Fassbender), who is taken by the Templars and forced to relive the memories of his ancestor, Aguilar, in order to find the location of the Apple of Eden. This relic can then be used to control the masses around the world.