With Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced weeks away from release, Edward Kenway actor Matt Ryan has been reminiscing about the time he thought he was auditioning for a pirate TV show rather than Ubisoft's soon-to-be hit.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Ryan recalls, "It was pitched to me via my agent as a pirate TV show." He continued, "Amy Hubbard, a great casting director in the UK, got me into the room, and then they liked me. They asked me for a callback, and then they leveled with me. They were like, listen: this is a videogame. They said it was an Assassin's Creed, and I'd played the first one, so I was like 'great, that's a cool game.'"
And while he was seemingly down for it anyway, Ryan explains that being able to mocap the performance was a big deal for him. "I didn't think it was mocap," he recalls, "so when it was mocap, I was over the moon. I get to be the character, in the body, you know?"
And while Edward Kenway would end up being Matt Ryan's only role to date in a video game, the actor has an appreciation for the medium and its unique elements, saying, "as an actor, if you do a play, it's one performance, it's gone, and there is something kind of wonderful about a performance that's fleeting.
"And with TV and movies, people watch it once, maybe twice if you're lucky, so they spend a bit of time with you. But with a videogame, they spend a lot of time with you." He adds, "It's been really, really nice after all these years to be invited back to this role, and to feel that this character is as beloved as it is."
Ezio may be the face of Assassin's Creed for many, but 13 years on, Edward Kenway is the closest second in terms of how much fans love the character. Granted, it helps that Black Flag is the best Assassin's Creed game, too.
GamesRadar+ also spoke to Matt Ryan, which you can read here alongside our preview of the upcoming remake
