GAME · 2013 · CANADA
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
- Developer
- Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Romania, Ubisoft Kyiv
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows, Wii U, PlayStation 3
24 archived facts 5 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Nov 2026
24 Interesting Facts About Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Interesting Facts (5)
- #001
All of the subtitles in the game are written with every noun capitalised. This is because this is how English used to be written during the 17th and 18th centuries.
- #002
Edward Kenway is the father of Haytham Kenway and the grandfather of Connor Kenway, the deuteragonist and protagonist of Assassin's Creed III (2012).
- #003
Edward's voice actor, Matt Ryan, initially chose to voice the character with a Manchester accent. However, when the producers heard his natural Welsh accent, they asked him to speak Edward with his own accent. As a result, Edward's story was rewritten so that he was born to a farming family in Swansea, Wales.
- #004
Unlike most Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed protagonists, Edward is not motivated by revenge or the memory of a deceased relative. For most of the game, what drives him is the desire for great wealth, fame and victory.
- #005
Even though this is an Assassin's Creed game, the main character is not an Assassin and does not officially join the order until the end of the game. False rumors have circulated about Edward Kenway, such as that he was a pirate trained by the Assassins or that he was both at once. In reality, he lived only as a pirate before joining the Brotherhood.
Production Story (5)
- #006
This was the first of two installments in the series where the main protagonist did not wear a "beaked" hood; each of the other Assassins had an eagle's beak designed to the front of their hoods.
- #007
Edward's voice actor, Matt Ryan, chose to voice him with a Mancunian accent (a dialect of English spoken in the English city of Manchester). However, after the game developers heard his natural Welsh accent, they asked if he could voice Edward using his native Welsh accent. As a result, Edward's back story was re-written to have him born in Swansea, Wales to a farming family.
- #008
Carsten Myhill, lead content manager for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, rejected the view that the game should have been a spin-off like Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood or Assassin's Creed: Revelations, arguing that its fresh feeling, setting, attitude and tone justified the numbered Assassin's Creed IV title.
- #009
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was the first numbered main-series entry in the franchise to carry a subtitle, a choice Myhill said was intended to set its pirate theme apart from the rest of the series.
- #010
Director Ashraf Ismail modeled the open world of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on Super Mario 64's approach, using a hub world with pockets of maps filled with content.
Behind the Scenes (3)
- #011
Ralph Ineson spent several hours researching Charles Vane online, out of concern he would have to do an accent for the role. When he discovered that Vane's accent and birthplace were never recorded in any historical documents, he decided to use his natural speaking voice for the character.
- #012
Mark Bonnar came up with Blackbeard's voice by traveling around the city of Bristol and recording his conversations with various residents he encountered. Then, when during the car ride home, he listened to the tapes and practiced mimicking the Bristol accent until he decided he had perfected it.
- #013
In November 2013, Ubisoft funded the exhumation of the remains of the Spanish corsair Amaro Pargo so that his face could be reconstructed for a possible appearance in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The exhumation produced significant findings about the corsair's physiognomy.
Characters & Cast (6)
- #014
Edward Kenway is listed as being born in Swansea, Wales, which is the same place of birth for his voice actor, Matt Ryan.
- #015
Unlike most Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed protagonists, Edward is uniquely not motivated by revenge or the memory of a deceased relative. Throughout most of the game, gaining great fortune, fame and glory is Edward's motivation.
- #016
Before Edward's captaincy, his ship was called the 'El Dorado' and sailed in the Spanish Treasure Fleet. He then rechristened it the 'Jackdaw', after a small bird of the same name.
- #017
Contains a major spoiler — show
Edward Kenway's death is not shown in game, but in the sequel comic, he is killed when the Templars break into his home while he is sleeping and stab him to death. Then, they take his kids, Haytham and Jennifer. Haytham is raised to become a member of the Templar order, while Jennifer is sold to Turkish slavers as a concubine.
- #018
Contains a major spoiler — show
The "twist" of James Kidd being revealed as a woman named Mary Read should be very obvious to most players, as the character's voice never changes and James is clearly voiced by a woman.
- #019
Contains a major spoiler — show
Despite this being an AC entry, the main character of the game is not an Assassin and does not become one until nearing the end of the game. There was also much false propaganda surrounding Edward Kenway; saying that he was a pirate who was trained by the Assassins or that he was both at the same time. In truth, he never trained with the Assassins and lived solely as a pirate before officially joining the Brotherhood.
Easter Eggs & References (5)
- #020
In your cubicle, books can be found such as "Assassin's Creed: The Fall" and "Assassin's Creed III: Forsaken". These are real books by Oliver Bowden (Anton Gill) that tell the Assassin's story in greater detail.
- #021
A certain document found on an Abstergo computer lists the time eras that Desmond had Assassin ancestors in. With many of these having been done (Crusades, Italian Renaissance), it is thought by players that the other periods listed will appear in future games. Their theories are supported by the fact that the French Revolution was on the list, and has been the setting of a game: Assassin's Creed: Unity (2014).
- #022
In this game, a woman comes to you when you're out of the Animus and tells you that the head of Abstergo Industries, Olivier Garneau, had a meeting in Chicago (where Watch Dogs (2014) takes place) but hasn't returned. In one Watch Dogs side mission, you kill Garneau. Should the player then decide to profile Garneau with Aiden's phone, his descriptor even reads "Targeted by the Brotherhood", clearly referencing the Assassin brotherhood in these games. This puts both games in the same universe.
- #023
During the present day, the player accesses "Market Analysis" of previous Assassin's Creed characters. In the one for Ezio Auditore, the narrator keeps mispronouncing Ezio's name as "Enzio." This was done on purpose, as both the Marketing Analysis Director and Ezio Auditore share the same voice actor: Roger Craig Smith.
- #024
Contains a major spoiler — show
The theater Edward and his children visit at the end of the game is the same one Haytham attends at the beginning of Assassin's Creed III (2012).
Sources & editorial notes
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag — Wikipedia
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