It took Hollywood many years to crack the formula for turning popular video game franchises into successful movie and TV franchises, with Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Halo, and many more experiencing mixed fortunes during the transition. Gradually, a string of stronger adaptations chipped away at whatever was holding live-action video game remakes back. The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise recovered from a terrible first design to find mainstream success across several mediums, Detective Pikachu proved surprisingly great fun, and even 2021’s Mortal Kombat defied the odds.
Nevertheless, it was HBO’s The Last of Us that fully tore down the argument that video games couldn’t become great live-action stories. With an all-star cast and a tone not dissimilar from The Walking Dead‘s glory days, The Last of Us seasons 1 and 2 have united gamers and non-gamers alike by delivering one of the decade’s best TV shows so far. With “Long, Long Time,” The Last of Us also gave the world one of its best TV episodes in any decade.
Despite stiff competition from Prime Video’s Fallout, The Last of Us has remained the show to beat in terms of great video game adaptations, but another effort from Amazon has an excellent chance at stealing its crown.
Naturally cinematic and endlessly epic in scale, Mass Effect always looked destined to transcend beyond its video game origins, and when a long-mooted live-action movie never materialized, a Prime Video TV version was announced in 2021. Progress has been slow in the five years since, but an update from writer Daniel Casey confirms the project remains active, with the writing process ongoing.
Mass Effect Has A Very Good Chance At Beating The Last Of Us
The enduring interest in a Mass Effect adaptation is no accident. With a sprawling futuristic world ripe for space opera shenanigans, fully-realized alien races with detailed and intricate histories, and iconic locations such as the Citadel space station, Mass Effect has all the ingredients necessary to compete with genre giants like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica.
More encouraging still, Mass Effect‘s suitability for TV has already been proven by The Expanse. Despite being based on a series of novels by James S.A. Corey, The Expanse bears more than a passing resemblance to Mass Effect, with numerous parallels in story, worldbuilding, and villains. The Expanse, of course, went on to become one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever made, so while Mass Effect isn’t a like-for-like copy, The Expanse‘s past success is certainly a positive sign.
The reputation and legacy of the Mass Effect franchise is huge, and Amazon isn’t developing a TV version to be second-best. The Last of Us should be duly wary.
Mass Effect’s Biggest Difference To The Last Of Us Could Backfire
There is one noticeable difference between how The Last of Us and Mass Effect are each approaching the process of adapting a video game story. The Last of Us broadly follows the narrative path laid out by Naughty Dog’s two video games, albeit with some choice twists and turns. Telling a familiar story could have diluted the show’s impact, but reactions to The Last of Us so far suggest that hasn’t been a problem.
By contrast, early signs point toward Prime Video’s Mass Effect telling a story within the world of the video game franchise, but without adapting Shepard’s adventures verbatim. Those familiar with the games will have something fresh to sink their teeth into, but there is a risk that a Mass Effect TV series with a new story defeats the point of having a Mass Effect TV series at all.
One saving grace for Mass Effect is that The Last of Us‘ most acclaimed episode, “Long, Long Time,” is only loosely based on the games, proving that the phrase “original material” needn’t strike fear into fans’ hearts. Whether Mass Effect can craft an entire series on the back of original material, however, could become the show’s biggest obstacle.