The other side of the Assassin’s Creed casting coin.  The protagonist of Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation for Playstation Vita is Aveline de Grandpré, an American woman of French and African descent.  She is the franchise’s first woman assassin and main character. Today Kotaku reported that Aveline will be voiced by voice actress Sarah Natochenny.  While it isn’t unprecedented for white women to voice characters of color in voice work (eg. Janet Varney as Korra) this is a departure from the Assassin’s Creed franchise’s usual casting practice.   For example, actors Philip Shahbaz and Cas Anvar both voiced Altaïr ibn La’Ahad in earlier Assassin’s Creed games.  These games are some of the only games to have an actor of Middle Eastern descent in the lead role.  As noted in a previous post, the production of Assassin’s Creed III also made an effort to seek out an actor of Native American descent to depict Conor Kenway/Ratohnhaké:ton.   It’s unfortunate, since having a women of color as the main character in video game is already a rarity.  Willingness to feature characters of color and actors of color in lead roles is part of what makes Assassin’s Creed games unique.  This casting is a departure from the way this diverse video game franchise has cast it’s lead roles in the past.  

The other side of the Assassin’s Creed casting coin.  The protagonist of Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation for Playstation Vita is Aveline de Grandpré, an American woman of French and African descent.  She is the franchise’s first woman assassin and main character.

Today Kotaku reported that Aveline will be voiced by voice actress Sarah Natochenny.  While it isn’t unprecedented for white women to voice characters of color in voice work (eg. Janet Varney as Korra) this is a departure from the Assassin’s Creed franchise’s usual casting practice.  

For example, actors Philip Shahbaz and Cas Anvar both voiced Altaïr ibn La’Ahad in earlier Assassin’s Creed games.  These games are some of the only games to have an actor of Middle Eastern descent in the lead role.  As noted in a previous post, the production of Assassin’s Creed III also made an effort to seek out an actor of Native American descent to depict Conor Kenway/Ratohnhaké:ton.  

It’s unfortunate, since having a women of color as the main character in video game is already a rarity.  Willingness to feature characters of color and actors of color in lead roles is part of what makes Assassin’s Creed games unique.  This casting is a departure from the way this diverse video game franchise has cast it’s lead roles in the past.