After many years of speculation, the television adaptation of Mass Effect is finally made official. The first rumors in the corridors date back to 2021 when Amazon was preparing an agreement for the development of a television series inspired by the video game. At that time, Mac Walters, then head screenwriter at Bioware, also mentioned that the film adaptation projects had finally turned to the small screen. And so it is after three years of radio silence that the program is finally coming to light. It’s through the American media Variety that Amazon MGM Studios took care to confirm the development of the Mass Effect series.
Unsurprisingly, the details regarding this project are still well protected, but the entertainment giant still wanted to reveal a few names in charge of production. On the scenario side, Amazon offers the services of Daniel Casey who notably worked on the writing of Fast and Furious 9. Karim Zreik (Marvel’s Jessica Jones) was named executive producer alongside Bioware’s Michael Gamble, as well as Ari Arad. This last name risks casting a chill among players who are used to following adaptation projects closely. Indeed, this producer is notably linked to the terrible feature film Borderlandsbut also worked on films Uncharted et Ghost in the Shell. Be careful not to confuse him with Avi Arad (Spider-Verse) as some have already been able to do, because the results are far from being the same.
A project that worries a Bioware veteran
Following the first rumors regarding the development of a series, one of the former main writers of Bioware was far from the same opinion as Mac Walters. David Gaider was quick to share his concerns on Twitter, going so far as to advance that such a project would put him “uncomfortable“. According to him, the charm of Bioware RPGs lies essentially in the freedom it offers the player: an asset which will immediately be erased by the linearity specific to television series.
“First, Mass Effect and Dragon Age have a customizable protagonist. Which means that the series will have to choose whether this protagonist is male or female. And boom, from the start, you have just alienated an entire part of the community who had placed their expectations in the project. Second, these protagonists are designed to be a sort of whiteboard, which the player fills in with their decisions. This won’t work for passive media. Suddenly, the protagonist will have his own personality… and his own ‘story’. It will be weird” he explained then.
The series Fallout started with the same disadvantages, but Lucy’s adventures were still able to convince the spectators. So who knows: maybe the adaptation of Mass Effect will free itself from Commander Shepard’s story to stand on its own two feet. But as David Gaider has already said, the risk of producing “a science fiction series that is quite banal” is far from non-existent. Verdict in a few years when the project makes its debut on Prime Video.
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