Ubisoft has officially confirmed that the upcoming Splinter Cell: Deathwatch animated series, coming to Netflix, will be considered part of the main game canon. Despite the format and some creative liberties, the project was created as a direct continuation of the original storyline.
"[Deathwatch] follows the timeline and characters established in the main games. While Deathwatch respects the source material, some television events have been re-imagined."
What specific changes were made to adapt to the series format has not yet been revealed. However, according to company representatives, they are minor and do not affect the main plot. A similar statement was previously made by the project's showrunner, Derek Kolstad, who promised to "preserve the brain and heart, entertain the soul, and do everything possible" to avoid disappointing fans of the series.
Splinter Cell: Deathwatch will be released on Netflix on October 14 and will tell the story of an aging Sam Fisher, forced to return to duty. The plot will build on the consequences of the events of Chaos Theory — in particular, the murder of Douglas Shetland. At the center of the conflict will be his grown-up daughter, Diana Shetland, who heads a new organization called "Xanadu," which is causing a new international crisis.