It has been all over the news lately that Amazon Studio’s next target for a TV series is BioWare’s sci-fi RPG series,Mass Effect. Currently, EA and Amazon have not settled on the project yet, but an attempt is being made. This is following a trend of video game shows lately, with Amazon also making aFalloutTV show andHBO making aThe Last of Usadaptation. Video games and the film industry have had a long history of adaptation failures, so fans are rightfully concerned.
In terms of aMass EffectTV show, most fans want Commander Shepard to be left alone. Their backstory, personality, and gender are dependant on player choices, so a show attempting to have its own Shepard canon leaves a bad taste. In fact, the best idea for the show to be a success would be to leave most characters from the original game franchise alone.
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The Risk Of Using Major Mass Effect Characters
Mass Effecthas a lot of fan-favorite characters, each with backstories that could be explored in a TV show. This has even been done before, with James Vega fromMass Effect 3getting his own anime calledParagon Lost. While Amazon would certainly get a bandwagon of thirsty fans going if, for example, it made a show about Garrus' backstory, it would also make the show be the target of higher expectations. If it did not meet those high expectations, the show will not just be bad, but absolutely hated by gamers who love the character.Paragon Lostplayed it safe with James Vega not being a fully explored character in the games, but the show still got about five out of 10 stars on IMDb.
Fans already intimately knowtheMass Effectcharactersas well, so their backstories may not offer anything new. While it could be fun to watch a show surrounding Liara’s, Garrus', or Wrex’s backstory, keeping the tension alive would likely need to come from untold stories, which is difficult to do with such thoroughly written characters. Still, it would be interesting to see characters like Jack or Miranda develop in their younger years. Outside of backstories, little else is fair game for a TV series since player choices dictate how these characters turn out.
What New Characters And Story Can Offer
One of the greatest questions theMass Effectseries has yet to offer its fans is what’s happening next.Mass Effect: Andromedawas not very popular and there are still very few details out aboutMass Effect 4. New life needs to be breathed into the series, and there is a ton of room for interesting new characters. There are plenty of races that fans would love to see more of that got the short end of the stick in the games, such as the elcor, batarians, vorcha, hanar, keepers, volus, and yahg. Home planets of various races would be cool to see as well. Shepard’s exploration of planets was pretty limited, and a TV show could give more attention to different alien cultures, cuisine, and architecture.
Of course, easter eggs of characters and things from the original games would be awesome too. Fans would certainly get a hoot out of easter eggs about major characters likethe Illusive Manor minor ones like Conrad Verner. As for the main character, a good choice could be one that explores different planets and gets to interact with different races as Shepard did. However, they would need to not be Shepard and have an original concept to keep the content fresh.Mass Effectfans want to laugh and cry with a good sci-fi adventure again while not being stuck in nostalgia or pushed to a different galaxy.
Mass Effect: Legendary Editionis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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