EA has teamed up with Amazon Prime Video to develop a Mass Effect TV series, and Amazon has tapped writer Daniel Casey to write and executive produce the project.
The news was announced in a report from Variety, though it’s also no doubt part of Bioware’s N7-Day festivities, especially since the studio doesn’t have a lot to share about the next Mass Effect game, having just launched Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
This is Casey’s biggest project since he wrote the script for Fast & Furious 9, and will be joined on his journey to produce the adaptation by EA’s Mike Gamble and Cedar Tree Productions own Karim Zreik. Also joining them is Ari Arad, who has worked on films like the recent Borderlands adaptation, Ghost In The Shell and the Uncharted film.
There’s no word on what the overall plot will be for the show – it could be a retreading of the story told in the games, with Commander Shepard in full-gear, punches flying left and right. Or not, if it’s a Paragon run.
Or it might be something else entirely – who knows at this stage. Regardless, the adaptation is exciting news. Mass Effect has always been one of the top choices for anyone considering which video game franchise would be the best fodder for an adaptation.
Its emphasis on deep and complex character arcs that take place over the course of many hours of conversation, action and a fight to save the universe is much more easily played out in the course of a TV series, than a film franchise.
Take the first Mass Effect game, for example. Trying to cram all of the most important bits from that story into even three movies, would be a huge challenge. A TV series will hopefully afford the creators the time they need to explore the many corners of the complex universe in which the Mass Effect games are set.
The other interesting thing about this adaptation announcement, beyond speculation about what it could be about and how good it’ll be, is the fact that it’s once again Amazon winning out.
Amazon now has a Mass Effect show in the works, a God Of War series, a Horizon series. It just launched its Like A Dragon: Yakuza show, and saw huge success with its Fallout show earlier this year. Then there’s the coming Secret Level show which’ll feature its own suite of games.
Netflix might’ve broken the ground first on ‘major live action TV show video game adaptations’ with The Witcher, and HBO might’ve made the biggest splash with The Last Of Us, but its Amazon that seems to have more of these adaptation projects on the go than any other production house.
It’ll be interesting to see how that impacts the growth of what’s become a new sector of the TV and film industry with a few big hits in the last five years.
Source – [Variety]