Michael Fassbender has been filming Assassin’s Creed, the film adaptation of the video game, for months now. Entertainment Weekly published this new photo from the film – that’s actress Ariane Labed on the left. Fassy plays Callum Lynch, the lead guy in the film standing in for the first-person POV of the game. Please don’t ask me to describe anything else about the game, because I can’t. I’m not a gamer. I really couldn’t care less. And as it turns out, Fassy couldn’t care less either. He signed on to star and produce Assassin’s Creed without ever having played the game. Is that funny? Or weird?

Ubisoft’s historical fiction-action-adventure series Assassin’s Creed stands as one of the most popular video game franchises ever created, selling more than 73 million copies and spawning comic books, novels, animated short films, even its own hard-cover encyclopedia in addition to popularizing some 20 series-related titles…. But before Ubisoft made their movie overture to him in 2012, Michael Fassbender admits he couldn’t have been less of a gamer and didn’t have the most concrete idea of what he was getting into.

“I hadn’t played it before these guys approached me,” Fassbender tells EW. Starring as Callum Lynch — a character who does not appear anywhere in the game but who exists as a kind of cypher for all the time-traveling, first-person action in the games — has yet to compel the man widely hailed as one of the finest actors of his generation to spend more quality time with his Playstation 4.

“I’ve played it since [being offered the job] mainly to get an idea of the physicality of the character,” Fassbender says by phone from Spain, where he was filming the adaptation. “We’re striving to find something special. We believe the whole concept around it is special and want to service that the best we can. The fans are really passionate: very specific and they expect accuracy and historical detail. We’re really trying to capitalize and feed on and enjoy the fun element. We’re working hard to make this something special.”

Descended from a long line of master killers (who square off against another secret sect called the Templars in a centuries-old covert war), his character’s physicality does not, however, involve super powers or magic. “A lot of the stuff in the game is Parkour,” Fassbender explains. “Blades attached to his wrists. It’s about getting in close to the target, close quarters fighting.”

And that, according to Assassin’s Creed director Justin Kurzel (who also directed Fassbender in this December’s Cannes-anointed adaptation of Macbeth), has involved the actor doing a lot of his own stunts. But he shrugs off questions about his physical feats on set. “I’ve learned how to roly poly, tumble turn,” Fassbender says with a laugh. “Stuff you can do in everyday life. Like cartwheels. No — just basic fight choreography stuff. I did some horse stuff today. So stuff like that.” Sounds killer.

[From EW]

While I’m not in the position to criticize Fassy for not being a gamer, I do think it’s strange that he would not only want to star in but produce a film based on a video game he had never played at that point. Video game nerds are like comic-book nerds: detail-oriented, passionate about minutiae and just looking to throw a tantrum about something. It would have helped if the producers on the film were very familiar with the world of Assassin’s Creed and willing to fight to get those details right. That being said, it does seem like the video game people are very involved in this film adaptation, so maybe Fassy is more like an actor-for-hire and everyone around him are making sure the details are correct.

Photos courtesy of EW, WENN.