Why Ubisoft Chose Basim For Assassin's Creed Mirage

gameinformer.com:

When Ubisoft revealed Assassin’s Creed Mirage last September, it also announced that Basim Ibn Is’haq, the master assassin who brought Eivor into the Hidden Ones order in 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, was returning. This time, however, he would the playable protagonist. His journey in Mirage takes him from street thief to Hidden Ones order initiate and eventually to the master assassin we see in Valhalla. 

Basim getting his own game is the first time in the franchise’s history that a character who already appeared in a different Assassin’s Creed gets their own mainline game as protagonist. After playing Mirage for roughly two hours for Game Informer's latest cover story, I came away excited to learn more about Basim’s journey and experience his progression, both narratively and mechanically, in the full release this October. But I was also curious how developer Ubisoft Bordeaux decided to bring Basim back. It turns out his backstory (or lack thereof when we meet Basim in Valhalla) and how it ties into the series’ first protagonist, Altair Ibn-La’Ahad, whose Assassin's Creed events take place in 1191 roughly 300 years after Mirage, is one of the key factors. 

“Basim was a very intriguing character,” creative director Stephane Boudon tells me at Ubisoft Bordeaux’s office. “He was mysterious. And it was, in fact, really perfect to tell [the story of his youth] because it creates a parallel with Altair. It’s not really the same story, but when you play [Assassin’s Creed], you live the life of an Assassin who will have to rank up to prove he is worthy of the Creed, and for Basim, it’s exactly the same.”

Boudon explains that with Mirage serving as a spiritual homage to the first Assassin’s Creed, and Basim for Altair, this