Assassin’s Creed Movie: Brendan Gleeson and Jeremy Irons Join Cast

If ever there is to be a video game movie with the potential to be special, Assassin’s Creed should be it. For its first film, Ubisoft Motion Pictures has partnered with New Regency to produce not an adaptation but a continuation of its game universe (a massive expansion, if you will). And that new content already includes director Justin Kurzel overseeing things alongside his Macbeth leads Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.

Well, the cast just got that much more impressive since Deadline confirmed Friday that Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson are joining the cast of the Assassin’s Creed movie.

It should be worth noting that this picture is also being distributed by 20^th Century Fox. And in a bit of fun world-building, Gleeson and Irons have already shared the screen before for a period piece epic in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, which was also distributed by Fox. We already know that film was a major influence on the first Assassin’s Creed game, and this film establishes that ancestors can look an awful lot like their descendants with Fassbender playing dual roles… here’s hoping Gleeson is a Templar and Irons has some sordid history going back to the Crusades as well.

Assassin’s Creed will primarily take place in 15^th century Spain with all new characters. Rather than adapting the existing video game story of Desmond Miles and his respective medieval and renaissance ancestors, Altair and Ezio Auditore, the movie follows Callum Lynch (Fassbender), a new character who discovers his DNA holds the secret for communing with his 15^th century ancestor Aguilar (also Fassbender).

Set to expand the video game universe instead of transfer it, this means that there could still be crossovers with the video game storytelling (after all, most of Ezio’s adventures happen in 15^th century Italy), as well as frees the movie to craft its own convoluted path toward crazy period piece action.

Assassin’s Creed leaps into theaters on Dec. 21, 2016.