Although the Mass Effect TV series is reportedly “on the verge” of a series order, the boss of Amazon has also requested rewrites to make the upcoming series “more appealing to non-gamers.” Peter Friedlander, the current Head of Global TV, Amazon MGM Studios, wants a rewrite of the Mass Effect TV series in order to make it more accessible to anyone who’s not familiar with the games. It’s a bit of a divisive decision cause the Mass Effect IP is primarily a videogame IP and altering it in any shape or form could risk alienating a part of the players instead, who will be the main audiences for the TV series.
Back in November last year, Mass Effect boss Mike Gamble said that the Amazon TV series would aim for a completely original story based on the same universe instead of retreading any of the events in the trilogy, which is definitely the way to go.
“We’ve been partnering closely with Amazon on [the series], and we’re really excited with what the talented team over there is coming up with,” Gamble stated. “The writers room is going strong, and we’ve got a lot figured out about how it fits within the Mass Effect canon, and where it sits in respect to the new game. The show will explore a brand-new story within the universe’s timeline, and will be set after the original trilogy. It won’t be a retread of Commander Shepard’s story — because after all … that’s YOUR story, isn’t it?”
It can also be said that these kind of corporate-centric interferences are, in many ways, counterproductive to any creative output cause it can stand in the way of the overall cohesive-ness and hinder the flow of the story. The Mass Effect universe contains enough rich lore and narrative branches to lend itself to an intriguing narrative experience outside of the original trilogy, and it’d be interesting to see how the showrunners present the source material in a new format.
