At the end of June, amid a myriad of rumors already circling about an incoming remake of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, the actor who played Edward Kenway, Matt Ryan, practically confirmed that the remake was real and that it was coming soon. Ubisoft took notice and, according to Ryan, wasn't too pleased with his apparent slip-up and threatened the actor with a lawsuit.
Ryan admitted to the legal threat while signing the box of a fan's Edward Kenway figure at a recent convention. First posted to TikTok by kylo_hd659, and then shared on Twitter by TheHiddenOneAC (spotted by Insider-Gaming), Ryan is asked by the fan about his comments and about the upcoming remaster, to which he first responds by shrugging and saying, "Don't know."
The fan presses him further, and Ryan explains, "Well, the thing is, that when that happened, someone was doing this *gestures to person filming,* and I was being very free and open. But I didn't know that they actually were recording me on their phone, and then the company threatened to sue me. So [now] I say nothing."
It's unfortunate that, as Ryan explained, he wasn't aware he was being filmed at the time. Sure, you can argue that he shouldn't have said anything if he didn't want the trouble from Ubisoft, but there's also an argument to be made that Ubisoft is being a bit overly litigious here.
Ubisoft's own co-founder and chief executive officer confirmed in June 2024 that there were remakes of Assassin's Creed games coming. Anyone who knows anything about the Assassin's Creed franchise knows that Ubisoft and its decision-making executives would be dumber than they already seem to be at times, if they weren't working on a remake of Black Flag. Ubisoft has also been in dire need of some good press around its projects and what it has coming down the pipeline.
It honestly seems like a waste of a day for Ubisoft's lawyers to write up the legal threat in the first place. Surely they had better things to do with their time, and a simple message from someone on Ubisoft's team who works directly with actors like Ryan, telling him to stop talking about the remake and referencing it, would have sufficed.
But then again, we can't exactly be too surprised about a video game company being overly litigious, nor can we be surprised about a mismanagement of time and resources at Ubisoft.
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