Nolan North is perhaps the most synonymous voice actor people associate with the famed Assassin’s Creed franchise. For five iterations of the Assassin’s Creed series, North played Desmond Miles, who was the modern day protagonist, and he recently revealed some interesting details behind the original plan for Desmond Miles.
While this never came to fruition, North said the original plan for the Desmond Miles character was for him to learn skills from series protagonists Ezio, Altair and Connor, eventually making him the ultimate assassin in a game staring just him. “There were so many changes at Ubisoft with different writers and Patrice Desilets left.
“Originally, that was supposed to be a series of games where by the end of them, Desmond learns all of Altair’s skills through him. Then it gets to Ezio and Desmond learns all [of his skills]. Each [assassin, Desmond] would learn, and by the last couple of games, it was all Desmond going out as the finest assassin anywhere,” North said.
From Desmond’s knowledge of each assassin he would be able to use that and be the main protagonist, presumably in a present day Assassin’s Creed game. North continued by saying he gets “goosebumps” talking about the concept because of how “cool” it was. He felt Desmond became a bit too “whiny” by the end of his tenure in the franchise.
North complimented the series and its writing, though he hasn’t been a part of it since 2012’s Assassin’s Creed III launched. Apparently, Ubisoft didn’t tell North that Desmond’s character ended up passing away.
“I mean they didn’t even tell me [Desmond] died…It’s one of my least favorite things that we had to do was in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. [That was when] you [heard] all of the voice recordings he left for his father. That was thrown together last minute, one session, and it’s me just reading exposition,” North said.
North was asked if there was a possibility of him returning to the franchise, to which he said he didn’t “think so,” even though he “would” if the chance presented itself. It would be quite hard to explain a return from Desmond, but if it could happen, North would do it for the fans.
“There [are] a few characters that I would go back and do in a heartbeat and Desmond is one of them. If for anything, [I would do it] for the fans and I mean that sincerely,” North said.
If you haven’t played all of the Assassin’s Creed games and don’t know what happened to Desmond, stop reading because a spoiler is coming. As fans who have played the games know, Assassin’s Creed III was the last time we saw Desmond, as his storyline was wrapped up at the end of the game. No full game with Desmond as the assassin has ever been released and it’s doubtful we’ll ever see a modern day Assassin’s Creed.
This year’s Assassin’s Creed is Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and will take place in London with Jacob Frye as the main protagonist. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will launch on Oct. 23 for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. This will be the second installment to release for current-generation platforms only.
