Featured Image Credit: Electronic Arts
Topics: Mass Effect, Amazon, EA, TV And Film
The Mass Effect TV show has hit a bit of a setback, following reported requests of a script rewrite for the first season.
As reported by The Ankler (via IGN), Amazon’s new head of global TV Peter Friedlander has requested for some rewrites to the Mass Effect adaptation to make it “more appealing to non-gamers”.
With The Ankler describing Mass Effect as a “pricey genre drama” that is “on the verge” of a series order, it’s not clear what these rewrites will entail beyond broadening the show’s appeal.
It sounds like it could be similar to how Fallout approached its source material: not necessarily lifting a story directly from the games, but rather telling a new story using the characters, locations, and world as set dressing.
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Amazon’s Fallout expands the world that Bethesda Softworks and Interplay Productions have carefully crafted over the past three decades, and the results have been a resounding success for Amazon.
So, it’s entirely possible the same could be said here, by moving away from cheap gimmicks like fan service or references to the original trilogy.
Another reason could be due to the interactive nature of the games, which might be causing a roadblock in how to approach the series’ narrative.
Across the first three games which comprise the Mass Effect original trilogy, the player as Commander Shepard makes a series of tough decisions which dramatically change the status quo of the known universe.
The trilogy has you making decisions which affect many different species and civilizations. If you’re going to set a story in the Mass Effect universe, it’s incredibly difficult to do that without canonising a certain ending.
As controversial as the ending for Mass Effect 3 may be, each choice in the ending had rather dramatic and varied consequences for the franchise’s universe, and this might be something that showrunner Doug Jung is keen to avoid referencing.
Instead, they may be attempting to respect all choices made by players so as not to alienate any fans from the show while also avoiding non-gamers from being stressed out catching up on the lore.
It may also be this creative decision which could be preventing new Mass Effect stories set post-original trilogy from existing.
I mean, just look at how long we’ve been waiting for Mass Effect 5 to happen. It was announced to be in development in 2020, but we’ve heard very little about the game in the years since.
Ultimately, it proves just how perfect the original Mass Effect trilogy is, coming in and delivering a story that has since become difficult to follow-up with. We’ll have to wait and see how the series addresses the main trilogy, as well as its less popular sequel, Mass Effect Andromeda.
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