Within the series' alternate historical setting, Edward was born in 1693 into a family of Welsh farmers, but his ambitions to improve his lifestyle eventually prompt him to become a privateer and later a pirate, operating in the Caribbean during the final decades of the Golden Age of Piracy.

The lead scriptwriter for Black Flag, Darby McDevitt, observed that previous series protagonists have joined the Assassin Brotherhood without much deliberation, often as part of a coming of age moment, as their personal goals are already naturally aligned with that of the organization's.

[2][3] 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.

[4] McDewitt describe Edward as a "raucous and bawdy chap" who also has a few significant close relationships with other women in the story, and that his primary motivation in Black Flag is to get rich and prove himself a "man of quality' to his family and betters".

McDevitt originally envisioned Edward to hail from an English port town like Bristol, Portsmouth, or Manchester, but deliberately left his background blank prior to the finalization of the casting process because he wanted to draw from whichever actor was chosen.

To prepare for the role, Ryan was asked to read books recommended by McDevitt as part of their research of the time period, as the game's developmental team wanted to avoid the usual tropes and archetypes associated with the depiction of piracy in popular fiction.

[5] In Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, the player experiences Edward's life and exploits in the West Indies and the western African coast as part of a simulation played by a silent protagonist who works as a research analyst at Abstergo Entertainment, a corporate front of the Templar Order in the modern era.

The novel establishes that Edward 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.

He is also 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.

[13] He 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".

[13] Andrei Dobra from Softpedia interpreted McDevitt's statements about Edward 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.

[18] Nick Dinicola from Pop Matters found the narrative approach by Black Flag to be interesting, as its lead character does not become an official member of the Brotherhood of Assassins by the ending of the game; instead, the story explores both sides of the long-running Assassin-Templar conflict from the perspective of an indifferent protagonist, and allows players a better sense of the Assassins' code of conduct as Edward gradually becomes sympathetic to their cause and acknowledges that their creed is “the beginning of wisdom.”[19] In his paper which examines the representation of female characters in the Assassin’s Creed Series published by St. Mary's University of Minnesota, Stephen J. Fishburne described Edward Kenway as "capturing the ideal of masculinity and the self-made man to the greatest extent" amongst other male protagonists in the series, and noted that "the consequences of his irresponsibility are really only felt by those around him" because he is still considered the "hero of Black Flag".

Pfister noted that while Edward mostly acts ethically and adheres to his own code of conduct as he tries to do the “right thing”, he becomes a “gentleman of fortune” of his own volition in the first place, and that even more importantly, he seeks no redemption for his violent actions when it comes to exploring and hunting for victims.

This is reinforced by the game's mechanics, which encourages constant pillaging and raiding of merchant ships to improve the performance of Edward's flagship and offers the character "no incentive to ponder the possibility of becoming an honest man again".