Ubisoft Upsets Fans Yet Again by Canceling an Assassin's Creed Game About the KKK

It's wild that we now live in a world where a game about Black people fighting back against the KKK can somehow be seen as "controversial". Yet here we are. Ubisoft has reportedly cancelled an incredibly bold Assassin's Creed project that would have taken you to post–Civil War America during the Reconstruction era. 

The reason is the "U.S. political climate and Yasuke backlash". One of the greatest AC concepts was scrapped because of politics; let that sink in. According to reports from trusted industry insiders, the cancelled title, codenamed Project Scarlet, was being developed by Ubisoft Quebec, the same team that worked on Assassin's Creed Odyssey. 

The game was going to follow a former slave who becomes an assassin and returns to the South to confront the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. It's almost like Django Unchained meets Assassin's Creed, but oh well, that meeting never left the Ubisoft conference room. 

Assassin's Creed has blended real history with fiction, but tackling the KKK directly? That's turning up the heat a notch, and it could have elevated the series into something powerful beyond gaming. Unfortunately, Ubisoft pulled the plug before the game could even reach the public. 

Ubisoft has been planning an enormous lineup of Assassin's Creed titles. 

To be more specific, the number is 10. But despite that roadmap, Project Scarlet didn't survive the internal cut. It was progressing well in development—or so we've been told—with production moving smoothly, but, as I have said already, fears of political backlash overcame the black Assassin. 

The company's most recent entry Assassin's Creed Shadows, was "controversial," to say the least, for featuring Yasuke, a Black samurai, as one of the protagonists. While the idea was historically accurate, the internet, as it is today, turned it into a cesspit of arguments over "wokeness" and "historical accuracy". 

According to insiders, the backlash over Shadows made executives rethink the risk of diving into another racially charged story, especially one set in America, involving the KKK. Given the current political climate, it's not hard to see their concern. In today's world, any media that touches on race instantly becomes "woke". It's always someone calling it propaganda. 

In the early 2010s, Ubisoft wasn't afraid to go hard on political statements through the series—Assassin's Creed III dealt with colonialism and revolution, Freedom Cry addressed slavery directly, and Unity threw players into the chaos of the French Revolution.  

But today, the landscape is different because of the internet. 

A big, rather unsaid part of the story is the toll it takes on the people who actually make these games. The developers working on Assassin's Creed Shadows faced online bullying and even required therapy due to the sheer amount of hate they received. 

Even psychologists were allegedly brought in to help the team cope with the stress; yes, that's how bad it got. You have got to realize these people are artists at the end of the day, trying to tell a story. 

So, when Ubisoft executives looked at Project Scarlet, they probably saw a PR disaster waiting to happen. A game centered around a Black assassin taking down the KKK would absolutely have drawn attacks from the worst corners of the internet. Racism has been normalized to such a degree that telling a story about fighting it can itself become "controversial." 

Project Scarlet had the potential to bring Assassin's Creed back to its roots. The Reconstruction era would have been the perfect stage for that. Towns rebuilding after the Civil War, political factions clashing over what the "new" America should look like, and you have struck gold with another AC banger. The struggle between Assassins and Templars could have mirrored the real-world conflicts, but the cancellation just proves the conflicts that run deeper in today's world. 

Maybe, from a business standpoint, that's the safe move: canceling such a game. 

But from a creative one, it's a massive missed opportunity. Fans have been asking for years for the series to return to more grounded, human stories after its long dive into mythology and ancient history with Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla.  

A Reconstruction-era America, with burned-out southern towns rebuilt from the ashes, could have revitalized the Assassin's Creed franchise. We've seen glimpses of similar ideas in other games; Red Dead Redemption 2 toyed with KKK encounters, and Mafia III didn't shy away from depicting racism in its 1960s setting. Ubisoft had the chance to go further. 

So that leaves us with another ambitious AC project shelved, another reminder of how fragile bold storytelling has become in the gaming industry. Ubisoft is far from the only studio struggling with this. It's just sad that companies back off from telling real stories when they could be telling them to create social change, like RDR2 did, remember? 

But here's the irony: Assassin's Creed has always been political.  

From its first game, which questioned religion, to later entries exploring slavery, the series has never shied away from difficult subjects. It's built on the idea of examining history through the human cost of control. A game about the Reconstruction era wouldn't be "pushing an agenda." It would just be continuing the legacy of what Assassin's Creed has always been about. 

There's also something disappointing about how the franchise, once known for challenging norms, now feels paralyzed by fear. Ubisoft would have released this in the early 2010s without hesitation. That team wasn't scared of criticism; they were proud to tell stories that provoked thought. But most of those developers and writers have long since moved on.  

Even those who are skeptical of Ubisoft's storytelling chops agree that Project Scarlet had a compelling premise. The worst part is that, for lack of a better term, I have witnessed "conservative" people say that they would have loved to play a game like this.  

The idea of a freed slave turned assassin facing off against the KKK in a morally complex period of American history… this cancellation just feels personal. Moreover, what's saddening is not only the game but also the world's status quo.  

Instead, it joins the long list of cancelled Assassin's Creed projects that never saw the light of day. 

The difference here is that this one felt like it actually meant something. It was a story with relevance and racism (something that's still prevalent). It's easy to see both sides of Ubisoft's dilemma. On one hand, they want to protect their developers from harassment and avoid another media storm like Shadows. On the other hand, by giving in to that fear, they're letting the most toxic voices online dictate what stories we want to play. 

Ubisoft may have thought they were avoiding controversy, but in doing so, they created another one. Fans are left wondering what could have been, especially for a franchise that seems to have forgotten its roots.  

Maybe someday, another studio will have the courage to pick up where Project Scarlet left off and tell the story that Ubisoft wouldn't. Until then, we're left imagining what might have been a game that could have mattered.