r/masseffect • u/jazz4717 • Jun 22 '25

NEWS Tv Series

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I guess they are going with the game script

2.7k Upvotes

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453

u/akaMichAnthony Jun 22 '25

Not sure if it will work or not, but I guess I’ll take it instead of what was done with the Halo tv show.

233

u/1_800_Drewidia Jun 23 '25

I’d bet the failure of the Halo show is exactly why they made this choice for Mass Effect.

129

u/LorekeeperOwen Jun 23 '25

Which would be weird since Fallout made a good show with an original story and characters.

150

u/micheal213 Jun 23 '25

Because fallout is so easy to do that with. Every fallout game is a different place with new characters.

So they can essentially make the show as if they made another game with a new vault dweller main character and new plot etc.

Halo and mass effect could do that too. But the whole plot and characters are the main point of the game. So it’s just a lot harder to make something new or different with it.

34

u/Brainwave1010 Jun 23 '25

Halo is definitely the most difficult one to do it with because it's really hard to get the majority of people to care about Halo without Master Chief, Reach and ODST only worked because the franchise had an established fanbase at that point, trying to market a Halo show however not featuring Master Chief to general audiences was probably seen as financial suicide.

41

u/thedicestoppedrollin Jun 23 '25

The Fall of Reach could have been great on screen and still use a story a lot of fans aren't familiar with

11

u/ADarkElf Jun 23 '25

I know this is just a sign that I played Halo at a very specific time, but I find it crazy that Reach's story hasn't been experienced by so many people. "Objective: Survive" still hits like a truck. Would be interesting to see how/if they could adapt that for TV.

Here's to hoping it gets a successful remaster/remake one day, lots of great memories from the campaign and messing around in Forge mode.

2

u/thedicestoppedrollin Jun 23 '25

That’s a great mission, but I was actually referring to the book, not the game. I think they’re both canon, and the book is more about John’s origins. It starts with his abduction and ends with the Pillar of Autumn discovering the first Halo ring

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '25

Reach was the most cinematic Halo game they ever made, so it would probably be the easiest thing to port into an actual show/movie format. Can't imagine why they didn't.

17

u/Fragrant-Potential87 Jun 23 '25

They already made a Master Chief origins story movie and another live action project with him. Literally all they had to do was give us a show about the stuff MC does in between the games

4

u/BreesusTakeTheWheel Jun 23 '25

Ngl though I would love to see essentially the entire CE game filmed in live action. Been wanting that since I was a kid. Maybe change up how some of the scenes are filmed but keep the plot the same.

3

u/Hungry-Dinosaur121 Jun 23 '25

The flood would look terrifying if they did that well. I wish they did that instead of the series we got.

2

u/FrankDePlank Jun 23 '25

I mean the same goes for ME, it is not really mass effect without shepard.

0

u/DolphinBall Jun 23 '25

As shown with Andromeda

3

u/Twisp56 Alliance Jun 23 '25

Andromeda failed because it's a bad game, not because there's no Shepard.

1

u/The_8th_Degree Jun 23 '25

I havent seen the actual show, but I saw a random clip before and the animation looked pretty cool at least.

3

u/Brainwave1010 Jun 23 '25

Master Chief is without his helmet for 80% of the series and does the sex on a human Covenant woman while Cortana watches.

No I'm not joking.

0

u/Siserith Jun 23 '25

Not really hard, unless your a hollywood hack, apparently. there's a whole lot of books and expanded content that would be perfect for tv/film adaption, do it chronological starting with contact harvest and parts of fall of reach's spartan training and such, hell it's even lower budget starting it this way with less cgi, aliens, and action, much if it can be shot on locations without a set. There might need to be a small amount of fluffing up/expanding scenes/conversations and subplots to have enough content for the medium, but the story, details, structure, subplots, and characters are all already there.

4

u/WilonPlays Jun 23 '25

Ontop of that mechanics for each game and enemies change too so having ghouls look different isn’t an issue.

Also stimpacks being a magical fix all in game means it’s the perfect deus ex machina while still being cannon.

1

u/D3wnis Jun 23 '25

The issue with making a Mass effect story around Shepard is that you have a very limited scope as to what you're able to do, and if you make parts wrong or deviate from how fans imagine Shepard or any of the characters, you're going to get trashed.

You can however make a very good story in the mass effect universe based around soliders, survivors or regular people during the events and then just add fan service where you see team shep working in the background in certain episodes and people would be hype to see them. The universe is massive and you can have multiple parallel storylines of people that start out in completely different areas which at some point branch together due to events related to attacks made by Saren, Reapers, Collectors etc.

10

u/RealRedditPerson Jun 23 '25

I think there's a huge distinction between "an original story made by huge fans of the game that is entirely canon and takes place in a highly accurate recreation of the world we already know" and "fuck the source material, we don't like it and are going to use characters, concepts, and plotlines from the game however we see fit without consideration of their origin"

2

u/Speed-Tyr Jun 23 '25

Not really. All the characters in the show are very clearly, heavily based on characters from all the games.

2

u/Material_Junket1613 Jun 23 '25

Because the story of the Halo show was never supposed to be a Halo show. And it was written by people who have no clue or love of Halo or it's lore.

Last minute they changed a few things and slapped the Halo name on it. That's why the story makes no sense, its not a Halo story, but a generic sci fi story.

The fallout show was written from the beginning to be a fallout show, written by people who love the games and lore.

1

u/Archernar Jun 23 '25

Fallout is an easier universe to get right though. Mass Effect has a ton of lore but it's not all that easy to understand and get the right feeling across, I would assume.

1

u/Chimpbot Jun 23 '25

It's apples and oranges, really.

The Fallout series is defined by playing as different characters in completely different eras and settings with each game. The decision to follow a different main character from a vault we haven't seen yet in an area not explored in the games is 100% on brand for the series.

Mass Effect, however, is a different beast. I'd wager most people wouldn't be thrilled with that approach in lieu of adapting the games.

0

u/BlackTestament7 Jun 23 '25

That's because as much as people would want to argue to follow the lore, Bethesda has butchered it so bad that's pretty much impossible and it's not that hard to write a better story than current day Fallout.

10

u/Vexonte Jun 23 '25

They would repeat the same mistake of not understanding the source material. So much of what makes mass effects story great comes from the writers understanding that it would be applied to the gaming medium.

If a show runner tries to follow the game storyline without the self-directed exploration and player moral agency, then the best it can possibly be is a cinematic theme park ride where you get to see the costumes, hear the names but not the full story nor get the full effect when the character on screen kills someone as their choice and not yours.

14

u/InvictaRoma Jun 23 '25

If they just respected the IP, there wouldn't have been an issue with creating an original Halo plotline, even with already established characters. But it seems like the showrunner wanted to make his own show, but got shackled with an IP he either didn't really know, or just didn't care about.

5

u/Ashanrath Jun 23 '25

Even worse, didn't care to know.

5

u/BosCelts3436_v2 Jun 23 '25

The failure of the Halo show was not because it was an original story, but because they made choices that were so far off base from the source material. Through 5 plus Halo games we never once see Chief’s face. In the show they decide to show it immediately and his character traits are so far off from MasterChief in the games. 

1

u/TheDELFON Jun 23 '25

Which is EVEN more wild considering the Halo TV show was originally going to be Mass Effect story. But it got reworked into the catastrophe that was Halo TV Show

55

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '25 edited Jun 23 '25

Personally, I'm content if they essentially follow the game, regardless of the choices they make. All that matters is that they utilize the options already available within the game. I don't really care about anything else, like what gender they make Shepherd. Just don't try to reinvent the wheel.

33

u/NightwingX012 Jun 23 '25

Yeah, I honestly think if they use the Paragon route as an outline with a few smaller Renegade moments thrown in then it’s not as complicated as it seems. A lot of the big moments like how to handle the Genophage and the Geth conflict have overwhelming popular and satisfying Paragon resolutions, so they may as well just go with it imo

11

u/Bow1511 Jun 23 '25

So, we’re looking for a Paregade run huh?

12

u/NightwingX012 Jun 23 '25

Someone’s gotta break Kai Leng’s sword :)

1

u/walkchico Jun 23 '25

Even hating Kai Leng both as a character and a plot point, that scene feels so fucking satisfying.

10

u/Wild_Dougtri0 Jun 23 '25

Yeah, that honestly might be good.

6

u/Tao1764 Jun 23 '25

Yeah the only major ME1 choice I can think of that doesnt have an obvious answer is the Virmire Survivor, I would guess they keep Ashley but it could go either way. Wouldnt shock me if both live honestly.

10

u/Brainwave1010 Jun 23 '25

Or, as a chance for a do-over, replace Kai Leng with Kaiden.

Nobody likes Kai Leng, surely everyone knows this by now, they have the freedom to do something completely different with him.

1

u/walkchico Jun 23 '25

We only care about Kaiden and Ashley because we know their potencial and roles in the games to come. To a newcomer, playing for the very first time, does it matter which one survives? They don't know these characters very well to build a deep connection and feel bad about their deaths. They could both survive or build a deeper relationship with Shepard so their deaths feel more impacting.

10

u/Refreshingly_Meh Jun 23 '25

There are a lot of people who haven't played the games, and wont ever play them. It would be nice to have a way to share the story with them, at least one aspect of it.

The story is deep enough that it would be much like making a book into a movie. You don't need to change much besides the things that wont translate well to the screen.

9

u/eViLj406 Jun 23 '25

Exactly. This has been my opinion ever since the idea of a Mass Effect show first came up--what, like 10-12 years ago? It's a great space opera on par with the classics. It should be shown to a greater audience. A new story (First contact war, etc.) would be cool for those of us that played the games and know all the lore, but it's a TV show. Stick to the source material best you can. I've never seen something criticized for being too much like the source material. Lol.

3

u/Buca-Metal Jun 23 '25

I played the games and First Contact War to me feels like a very non interesting story to expand upon, we already know well what happened. Don't understand why some people in this sub insisted that the show should be about it.

14

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '25

Halo should have given us an ODST show showing how hard it is just to survive and a spartan, chief possibly, showing up at the final Engagement and just slaughters the covenant with ease. Absolute waste they don’t basically make the halo 3 odst commercial a show

7

u/FrankDePlank Jun 23 '25

They sort of did with Halo 4, a live action mini series that follows a bunch of recruits. The series is called halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. Master chief is in it.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '25

Exactly what I was pulling from. Think everyone is gonna die that space elevator collapsed and chief arrives.

Honestly the real fans would love it if we get to see some instances as to why noble 6 is classified as hyper lethal.

4

u/Intelligent_Oil7816 Jun 23 '25

That's basically the way Warhammer 40,000 introduces its power armored super soldiers in so many stories. It works.

4

u/WildRookie Jun 23 '25

But you have to start the show with those ODSTs rescuing Marines and being badass. Just fending off a Savage attack from grunts and jackals. Show that these guys are so much better than average.

Then episode 2 maybe have them lose some folks to drones. And just escalate through the season until blue team evacs what's left into a single pelican.

9

u/OhTheMetaYes Jun 23 '25

I don't think it'll translate well to another medium

23

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '25 edited Jun 23 '25

I can’t see it working tbh. Making choices and forging your own version of the story was key to what made the games so good. Any attempt to adapt it for tv will have to make a canon decision for every single choice made in the games, which is gonna make so many people mad. There’s literally no way to do it in a way that isn’t going to infuriate the majority of the people who played the games.

People seem to forget that mass effect has a ton of fleshed-out lore and a creative group of writers could definitely come up with a good original story that maybe ties into the events of the games somewhat, sort of like what we got with fallout. Sure it’ll be harder, but it’s more likely to make everyone happy, and it’ll be something new, which is better.

23

u/East-Property-3576 Jun 23 '25

The TV show isn’t going to “change” the games themselves or “make things canon”. An adaptation could never retroactively change the original work like that. Why? Because they’re separate entities from each other. The TV show doing something different from the games isn’t going to “erase” or “undo the player experience” or whatever nonsense hysteria people are buying into.

I don’t think they should use the story of the games and instead just make something adjacent set in the universe like the Fallout show did. But everyone who’s played the games is always going to have those memories of doing so. The show isn’t going to take that away whatsoever.

18

u/Pandora_Palen Jun 23 '25

There’s literally no way to do it in a way that isn’t going to infuriate the majority of the people who played the games.

Unless we just behave like reasonable people who understand all this and not toddlers having a tantrum. That would be so cringe. I'd like to believe the majority of people who played the games aren't entitled children.

13

u/Laxziy Jun 23 '25

Right? Like why should I care about something being made canon for the tv version? Like my personal canon is sitting comfortably in its save folder right next to my 6 other canons.

This is literally a game about all of us players getting to make our own personal canon. The tv series isn’t going to be functionally different than any streamers let’s play for me.

8

u/ODSTsniper-91 Jun 23 '25

Just because it’s following the main story does not mean it’s canonizing anything. in my opinion I just see it as the writers play through.

1

u/akaMichAnthony Jun 23 '25

If it stays true to the story and universe I definitely think non-canon is the way to go.

It’s A play through not THE play through.

Are there better stories in the ME universe they could tell, definitely. This is a safe approach though.

1

u/ODSTsniper-91 Jun 23 '25

I was referring to the show writers not BioWare writers.

2

u/N0-1_H3r3 Jun 23 '25

 There’s literally no way to do it in a way that isn’t going to infuriate the majority of the people who played the games.

I'm fairly sure this is true regardless of what anyone does with the license. Fandoms like this are not generally known for being accepting of any deviation from their beloved IPs.

2

u/Captain_Thor27 Jun 23 '25

It should work, provided they give it a good budget. ME has a great story.

2

u/LevelStudent Jun 23 '25

What's funny is that the Halo show was largely panned because they made Mr Chef into a horn dog and he kept taking off his helmet, but Shepard already does both of those things.

2

u/12345623567 Jun 23 '25

I'll take a word-for-word remake over whatever happened to Halo and Witcher, any day.

If they keep it to the plot of ME1, I don't even see what the issue is? It has a classical three-act structure.

ME2 should be a separate season centered around Cerberus (moreso than Harbinger, who ended up a pretty lame villain), and ME3 is difficult to adapt because it's so unfocused. But just straight lifting ME1 sounds ideal.

1

u/walkchico Jun 23 '25

I wouldn't mind ME3 being split into 2 seasons because there is so much to cover

1

u/Kiriima Jun 26 '25

ME3 could be easily covered if you split into multiple teams doing multiple things at the same time. Yes, it would take rewriting some Shepard moments and uplifting some companions to his/her role instead, but I see it as a plus.

2

u/ztomiczombie Jun 23 '25

I personally thing the best choice would be the Earth Turian war. Start with an explanation of how humanity got out into the stars after finding the Sol Mass Relay and are now fiddling with another relay. Anyone new gets an explanation of the universe and fans of the games get to see something they've not seen.

1

u/Sebguer Jun 23 '25

There's a conspiracy theory that the Halo series was actually written as a Mass Effect one originally. (https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoBestFriendsPlay/s/ymJSBKLpzY)

1

u/akaMichAnthony Jun 23 '25

The Halo show definitely feels like it’s a different sci-fi story that they added a Halo veneer to after the fact.

1

u/TheDELFON Jun 23 '25

Glad some pointed this out... with a linked source to boot.

1

u/TankerDerrick1999 Jun 23 '25

Actually you could be onto something because in what world do you think chief whould fuck a traitor who works with the covenant? That's more likely a mass effect plot than one from halo.

0

u/Svenomin Jun 23 '25

yes but i think that the Halo show still was pretty nice well i think that every TV Version of a game is amazing even if its not as it should be