Actress Eman Ayaz has stated she’s misplaced three years of labor in a “life-changing function,” simply days after Ubisoft canceled its long-awaited Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake.
“So hello, my identify is Eman, I am an actor, and final week I skilled essentially the most devastating second of my profession,” Ayaz stated in a video message posted on-line as we speak. “I am nonetheless underneath NDA so I will strive my greatest to talk as vaguely as doable concerning the particulars, and I hope you perceive.”
At no level does Ayaz particularly say the sport she labored on was Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake, however the actress has additionally retweeted feedback from those that have linked her to the function of Farah within the sport, seemingly making the connection clear.
Probably the most devastating second of my appearing profession: https://t.co/ZzbWftGL1t
— Eman Ayaz (@emanayazz) January 26, 2026
“Three years in the past I booked a life-changing function on a life-changing venture,” Ayaz started. “It was a rigorous audition course of, together with a self-tape audition, an in-person callback, and a chemistry learn that I needed to fly out of the town for. After I obtained the function I bear in mind crying my eyes out.
“I’ve spent the final three years attending to know the workforce which has change into like a household to me. I’ve watched it develop by means of numerous levels of growth and I’ve waited and waited for it to lastly be launched so I might discuss it. And this week, I discovered by means of the web that the venture was canceled.”
Ayaz says she was first contacted by her brother who had seen the information of the sport’s cancelation through a web based article. Ubisoft confirmed it had canned its Prince of Persia: The Sans of Time Remake final week, as a part of a wider reorganization that featured layoffs at three growth studios, the closure of two extra, and the shutdown of 5 different sport tasks.
“I used to be in complete shock,” Ayaz continued. “Simply two months in the past I filmed advertising for this venture, all the things had been operating easily and that was the final I had heard. We had been all wanting ahead to it being launched this yr, so it felt like an emotional whiplash to all of the sudden discover this out in such a random approach.”
Certainly, a report late final yr advised Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake was lastly just some months away, after first being introduced in 2020. The venture was then rebooted, with its most up-to-date incarnation having been in growth since early 2023.
“After I initially booked this function, what it stated to me was that each one the sacrifices I had made, going in opposition to my mother and father’ recommendation, pursuing my goals, all of the heartbreaks I might had alongside the best way, all of the shut calls, all of the rejections, they lastly had added as much as one thing,” Ayaz added, discussing the private toll the cancelation had taken.
Ayaz stated she’d turned down different job oppurtunities throughout the course of and labored on the job whereas recovering from an damage as she had been obsessed with not lacking out. “It was the most effective efficiency of my profession, and now nobody will ever see it.”
A Canadian citizen, Ayaz stated she had deliberate to use for a U.S. work visa based mostly on having the sport on her CV, one thing she will be able to now not do as she is unable to formally acknowledge her work on it. And as somebody with Pakistani heritage, Ayaz stated the cancelation had been one more setback after working “twice as onerous as non-marginalized actors to seek out area within the trade.” She added: “It is an upward battle and it’ll proceed to be that approach. It is such as you suppose you had your foot on a ledge, and it is crumbled. And you need to begin once more, and it is simply as steep.”
For its half, Ubisoft informed Prince of Persia followers that regardless of six years of labor, the sport was nonetheless too far-off from being able to fund any additional. “We weren’t in a position to attain the extent of high quality you deserve,” the corporate stated in an announcement, “and persevering with would have required extra time and funding than we might responsibly commit.”
“Sadly the leisure trade is not nearly leisure,” Ayaz concluded, “it is about guaranteeing a money move. And meaning making choices that deal with folks’s lives as collateral harm, and artwork as disposable content material… This venture existed, even when the world by no means obtained to see it. So many proficient artists devoted numerous hours to make this occur. And that does not simply disappear, it’s going to be in our hearts eternally, as fricking corny as that sounds… The one approach these tales survive is that if the viewers calls for them.”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You possibly can attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
