Ezio is reportedly coming back in Assassin's Creed Hexe — as a mentor to his own family's descendant

Ezio Auditore, the fan-favorite protagonist of Assassin's Creed II through Revelations, is set to return in AC Hexe — this time as an aged mentor figure to a new protagonist named Anika. The claim comes from leaker j0nathan, who has a strong track record on Assassin's Creed leaks, though his credibility took a hit in May 2026 when the official AC account called him out for sharing an AI-altered screenshot related to AC Invictus.

The setup

Anika is not called Elsa, as earlier rumors suggested — j0nathan notes that name changes mid-development are routine. More notably, she is a descendant of Claudia Auditore, Ezio's sister, who appeared in AC II and Brotherhood. Ezio himself features in the narrative in some capacity, though exactly how remains unclear: he could appear physically, through flashbacks, or via an Isu artifact (the ancient precursor race that underpins AC's sci-fi lore). Either way, j0nathan claims to have heard dialogue between the two. One exchange has Anika saying, "That white hood… just like in my mother's drawings," with Ezio responding, "She wanted you to have a life" and "Come. Jump with me. One last time for an old man."

The game is set in Würzburg between 1625 and 1631 — historically the site of the largest witch trials in Holy Roman Empire history. Anika is hunted as a witch, with one line of dialogue reading: "They call me a witch. They want to burn me for what I can do, for what I know." The tone leans into dark forests, rituals, and concealment rather than open combat.

The gameplay and the caveats

On the mechanics side, j0nathan describes updated tree-to-tree parkour (a callback to AC III), poison use, and what are described as "witch spells" — though current creative director Jean Guesdon has reportedly stripped out more overtly magical elements, grounding the experience closer to a historical thriller, per GamesRadar. j0nathan rates the story as the best since AC Origins.

Ubisoft has confirmed nothing — no plot, no setting, no release date. A June 2027 window has been reported by Insider Gaming, but three creative directors have departed during development (Hocking, Couture, and Richer), leaving Guesdon in charge. That level of leadership churn makes any release estimate unreliable. An early reveal at Ubisoft Forward in May or June 2026 seems likely, which would be the first official look at what Hexe actually is.

For now, the Ezio return — if it holds — would be the series' biggest nostalgia play since the Ezio Collection remaster in 2016. The character has been absent from mainline games for over a decade.