What Happens in Mary Read’s Cut Content

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag Resynced is starting to feel a little like last year’s Oblivion Remastered: a terribly kept secret whose eventual reveal will vindicate thousands of rumor-mongers and internet denizens. Evidence for this Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag remaster includes statements made by Edward Kenway actor Matt Ryan, Black Flag-related media recently uploaded to Ubisoft’s music channel, and a PEGI rating for “Black Flag Resynced,” uncovered in December 2025. A poorly kept secret indeed.

On the more speculative side of things, gaming insiders and outlets have commented on the specifics of this alleged Black Flag reprisal. The most notable example of this came from Jeux Video Magazine, a French games media company, which in September 2025 made several claims about the Black Flag remake’s gameplay, structure, narrative, and technical details, including the revelation that it was being developed in Ubisoft’s new Anvil Pipeline engine, the same one used for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Jeux Video Magazine also claimed that this new version of AC Black Flag would omit the modern-day storyline while adding back cut content for the in-Animus sections. One piece of alleged cut content is a storyline involving Mary Read, one of Black Flag‘s best characters, and players already know what it was meant to include.

What We Know About Mary Read’s Cut Content in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag

Mary Read, by all available historical accounts and records, was a famous pirate woman during the Golden Age of Piracy. For much of her career, she dressed in men’s clothing and assumed the alias James Kidd, only revealing her gender at specific moments, such as during a duel to shock an attacker, and during conversations with fellow secret-woman Anne Bonny. This subterfuge, fascinatingly linked to gender dynamics and sexual expression, was conveyed in the main story of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, which features Read as one of Kenway’s major allies.

Although her role in the game is substantial, it will reportedly be even more so in Black Flag Resynced. According to comments made by Black Flag Narrative Director Darby McDevitt, Ubisoft had originally planned to feature a showdown in Nassau between Chapters 10 and 11, adapting a real historical event wherein Read and Bonny protect their incapacitated male allies from aggressive British naval forces. It’s not clear how Edward himself would have factored into this event—whether he would have been incapacitated as well, for instance—but the realization of this epic historical moment would have been cool to see in Black Flag regardless.

Why More Mary Read Content Is a Boon for Black Flag Resynced

A lot of Assassin’s Creed games live and die on the backs of their supporting casts: historical figures, or those inspired by them, are often much more interesting than a given entry’s actual protagonist. Mary Read is one such character, so expanding her role for Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced seems like a no-brainer. But upping Read’s involvement, as creatively viable as it may be, has a practical side to it as well.

As previously mentioned, and as many Assassin’s Creed fans have been fervently discussing, this rumored Black Flag remake will allegedly be cutting all out-of-Animus, AKA modern-day, missions and cutscenes. Whether this is bad or good is a matter of opinion, but such a choice would certainly bring Black Flag Resynced more in-line with more recent AC entries, which de-emphasize their modern-day segments. Thus, by strengthening the in-Animus narrative compartment, which includes 18th-century scenes, dialog, missions, and supporting characters like Mary Read, this Black Flag revival has a chance to be more cohesive and abundant, with a richer story focused more on swashbuckling pirate antics and historical heroics, and less on convoluted sci-fi aspects.

Released

October 29, 2013

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence