Mass Effect TV Series to Explore New Story, Skipping Shepard’s Journey Bioware Confirms

Amazon’s upcoming Mass Effect TV series will not retell the story of Commander Shepard from BioWare’s popular video game trilogy. Instead, the show will explore a new story set after the events of the original games, BioWare confirmed during its annual N7 Day celebration.

“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?” Mass Effect director Mike Gamble wrote in a blog post.

The series, which Amazon listed for a Q4 2026 production start, is still a year away from filming. Earlier descriptions of the show hinted at a plot similar to the first Mass Effect game, but BioWare emphasized that a direct adaptation of Shepard’s journey is unlikely.

The choice-driven nature of the games makes a straight retelling difficult. Players can pick the gender of Shepard, choose which alien races to ally with, and even develop romantic relationships.

Because the series has never established a single canon, adapting the original story for TV without upsetting fans would be tricky. The approach is similar to Mass Effect Andromeda, which was set hundreds of years in the future and in a new galaxy to respect players’ choices from Mass Effect 3.

Amazon has experience adapting video games with original stories. Their Fallout series, for example, successfully combined a new narrative with the game’s existing lore, appealing to both longtime fans and newcomers.

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