28 Facts About Edward Kenway

Edward James Kenway is a fictional character in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed video game franchise.

Edward Kenway was introduced as a supporting character in Assassin's Creed: Forsaken, a companion novel to the 2012 video game Assassin's Creed III.

Edward Kenway subsequently appeared as the protagonist of the 2013 video game, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, and its novelization, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag.

Edward Kenway has received a positive reception for his charm and characterization as a morally ambiguous protagonist and self-made man and is considered to be one of the series' most popular characters.

McDevitt explained that Black Flag is at its core a story of immorality and repentance, and Edward Kenway is a married man whose strained relationship with his wife is one of the central struggles in the game.

Edward Kenway is voiced by Matt Ryan, who portrayed the character in a motion capture studio.

Ryan noted that unlike the majority of the game's cast of characters who are fictionalized versions of historical figures, Edward Kenway is an original character.

Unlike various pirates, Edward Kenway is shown to be a fairly reasonable man.

Edward Kenway has various acts of kindness shown throughout the game, hinting at a softer side, which is fully revealed at the end of the game when he meets his daughter Jennifer Scott.

The game's backstory establishes that Edward Kenway comes from a low socio-economic background and married a wealthy girl named Caroline Scott, though their relationship became strained over time due to Edward Kenway's ambitious dreams of earning a fortune as a privateer.

Edward Kenway befriended a number of fellow pirates including Stede Bonnet, Blackbeard, Benjamin Hornigold, Charles Vane and Mary Read, and helped them establish an independent Pirate Republic in Nassau.

Mistakenly believing the Observatory to be housing a vast treasure, Edward Kenway decides to seek out Bartholomew Roberts, the only man who knows its location.

Edward Kenway eventually secures an alliance with Roberts, who takes him to the Observatory, revealed to be a surveillance facility.

However, Roberts then betrays Edward Kenway and turns him over to the British authorities, who imprison him in Kingston, Jamaica.

Years later, he fathers a second child, Haytham Edward Kenway, and becomes a leader of the British Brotherhood based in London.

The novel establishes that Edward Kenway kept a journal documenting his extensive research on the First Civilization, which was sought by Reginald Birch, his property manager and, secretly, the Grand Master of the British Templars.

In 1735, Edward Kenway was killed by mercenaries sent by Birch to break into his mansion in Queen Anne's Square and steal his journal.

Edward Kenway is featured in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, the novelization of the 2013 video game, and Assassin's Creed: Awakening, a non-canonical manga adaptation of the game, written by Takashi Yano and illustrated by Kenji Oiwa.

In 2017, Edward Kenway appeared in the third issue of the Assassin's Creed: Reflections comic book miniseries, which recounts his encounter with infamous pirate Edward Kenway "Ned" Low.

Edward Kenway is the protagonist of the webtoon Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple, which follows his search for Pieces of Eden in Southeast Asia a few years after the events of Black Flag and began publishing in April 2023.

Edward Kenway is featured in Dead Men's Gold, a story arc from the 2018 mobile spin-off game Assassin's Creed: Rebellion, which serves as a prequel to the introduction sequence of Black Flag.

Outside the Assassin's Creed series, Edward Kenway has been referenced in the 2020 game Watch Dogs: Legion, where a statue of the character can be found in an underground Assassin Tomb in London, as part of a non-canonical crossover between the Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs franchises.

Edward Kenway has been well received by video game journalists, with high placements on several "top character" ranking lists of Assassin's Creed series protagonists.

Edward Kenway found the character's privateer-turned-pirate background, a chancer looking for profit whose decision to steal the robes of a member of the Assassins sparks his growth from rebel to honorable captain, to be a "fresh perspective to the overarching narrative of the series".

Andrei Dobra from Softpedia interpreted McDevitt's statements about Edward Kenway in an interview with VG247 as indicative of a belief that the popularity of Black Flag is largely because the character is an unusual protagonist who trumps many established tropes concerning heroes in the franchise.

Evan Stallworth Carr from The Daily Californian found Edward Kenway to be "a deeply interesting character" who displays a "charismatic and outgoing personality" for his pirate persona.

Stephen Totilo was of the opinion that while the subplot involving the wife he left behind paid off beautifully at its conclusion, Edward Kenway is a "forgettable lead" and his character arc is "shallow".

Tom Phillips from Eurogamer found it to be a "surprisingly mature conclusion for a series all about stabbing people in the neck", as Edward Kenway finally gives up a life of piracy to settle down with his newly discovered daughter, and that it took the entirety of the narrative of Black Flag where his experiences of the deaths of all of his close friends and loved ones lead him to making a sensible decision about his life.