Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, like Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, will allow players to play as both a male or female version of the protagonist, Eivor.
Unlike that game though, both versions of the character are canon and can be switched between freely.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Both Versions of Eivor Are Canon
As you'd expect, Valhalla returns players to present day in between Viking expeditions as the contemporary lead character Layla relives ancestral memories.
This will still be done with the Animus, but in an interview with IGN, the game's narrative director, Darby McDevitt, explained that this time around, players can adjust Eivor's gender through the device.
“You can go into the Animus layer of our game,” McDevitt explained. “There's an option to change the memory stream. To explain why would spoil a long-running secret, but I will say that the whole reason for why you can switch [Eivor’s gender] back and forth fully embraces the often-overlooked science fiction nature of our series.”
It all ties into something called "genetic memory" McDevitt explains.
"What are all the ways you can play with that? And how could we leverage that to make a character that you could choose male or female? We found a way that we think is pretty satisfying.”
The female Eivor featured more prominently in the game's Ubisoft Forward material and is also the subject of the game's collector's edition statue.