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‘Mass Effect’: Doug Jung Joins Amazon’s Series Adaptation Of Video Game As Showrunner

Amazon MGM Studios' long-gestating Mass Effect TV series is taking a step in development with the hire of Doug Jung (The Chief Of War) as showrunner.

deadline.com

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon MGM Studios' long-gestating Mass Effect TV series is taking a major step forward in its development with the hire of Doug Jung (The Chief Of War) as showrunner. He will be working alongside Dan Casey who has been writing the project for almost a year.

Mass Effect, based on Electronic Arts' best-selling sci-fi video game franchise, has been in the works since 2021 when Amazon MGM Studios made a deal with the interactive entertainment software company.

Jung and Casey executive produce alongside Michael Gamble of Electronic Arts, Karim Zreik of Cedar Tree Productions via the company's overall deal at Amazon as well as Ari Arad and Emmy Yu of Arad Productions.

Developed by BioWare, Mass Effect launched in 2007 with the first game, which follows Systems Alliance Navy vet Commander Shepard who must fight against an ancient machine race that looks to invade the Milky Way. The franchise includes the second and third installments of the Mass Effect trilogy as well as Mass Effect: Andromeda, with a fifth entry in the works.

Jung most recently served as executive producer and showrunner on Apple TV+'s upcoming series The Chief of War, which premieres August 1. His series credits also include Netflix's Mindhunter, Cinemax's Banshee and HBO's Big Love. In features, he co-wrote Paramount's Star Trek Beyond. Jung is repped by UTA, Circle Management + Production and Hansen Jacobson Teller.

 

[Halo is Back]

Ehhhh, I don't have much confidence in this. ME will not be an easy, much less cheap game to adapt.

 

[SamuraiEdge]

Doug Jung seems alright, given he worked on Mindhunter and Banshee. Could see that weird mesh working well if he understands and gets what made Mass Effect special.

Only time will tell, it can go either way.

 

[Punished Miku]

Surprised they didn't do it 15 years ago. Bioware games of that era all felt written similarly to sci-fi shows of the time like Stargate SG-1. Each quest, an episode. There's pretty easy blueprints to follow for this sort of thing. Apple+ does a lot of sci-fi too so really no excuse to blow it.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

This should have been made years ago. EA has squandered a lot of the potential of franchice.

A Mass Effect movie could have been great, so I hope this comes out okay

 

[Rush2112]

they killed the game so who gives a fuck

 

[MMaRsu]

 

[SILKYSMOOTH30FPS]

Rmember to add top scars or nobody is gonna watch your bigoted show.

 

[Putonahappyface]

This won't be a bomber.

 

[Power Pro]

Much of the joy of this series is feeling like you're making the decisions. Watching a show and playing a game is not the same friggin' thing. Sometimes I wish they would just let games be games.

 

[Singular7]

Guaranteed they ruin this.... zero chance its good

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

I have no confidence, its going to be

 

[calico]

Who we casting?

 

[mayham2199]

I have no faith in Amazon handling this. If it was HBO maybe.

 

[Fbh]

So, are we thinking Zendaya as Femshep and Bella Ramsey as Liara, or the other way around?

 

[iorek21]

Another big IP show given to someone with little to no experience to handle it?

Yeah, I'm sure it's going to work this time.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Pedro for Rex is the obvious choice.

 

[StueyDuck]

Zendaya for all the female roles, tom holland for Fem Shep and Pedro Pascal for Male Shep (there will be some sweet multiverse shenanigans so we see both sides).

 

[T4keD0wN]

Amazon did get Fallout right so maybe theres hope.

Who we casting?

Sam Worthington as Garrus
John Cena as James Vega
Scarlett Johanson as Liara
Danny Devitto as Niftu Cal
Owen Wilson as Jenkins
James Corden as Wrex
The Rock as John Shepard
Kevin Hart as Joker
Amy Schumer as Miranda
Kevin Hart as Jack
Ryan Reynolds as Kaidan Alenko
Kevin Hart as Grunt
Vin Diesel as Grunt

I look forward to checking back to see if i did better than what we end up getting (if it doesnt get cancelled)

 

[Garnox]

I love me some ME, but how do they even begin this? Who will survive Virmire? Will it be Femshep or Broshep? Will the ending be RGB? They will have to streamline so many things that it will not resonate with a lot of viewers. Plus given modern day entertainment, don't even think modern audiences won't partake of it.

Le sigh. I just hope ME4 can deliver.

 

[RickSanchez]

Hollywood truly does not understand what the main selling point of games is.......the interactivity.

Yes, some games have a great story to tell, but that story is often best experienced through the interactivity of a game, rather than passively consumed from a movie or series.

If you're adapting a great video game to a series or a movie, it is a lesser experience, because you're removing the best part of it - player agency. TV/movies are an inferior medium compared to games.

Specifically for Mass Effect - the main draw of the games is the RPG elements, build options, the dialogue choices, varying outcomes, etc. A TV series cannot replicate that.

 

[Deft Beck]

This is years too late.

 

[StereoVsn]

I mean Mass Effect could definitely work as a streaming series or even a movie series… the problem is Amazon. Their efforts have been all over the place and frankly I just don't see them succeeding with ME… especially if modern BioWare is involved.

 

[Hudo]

Watch this be better than whatever the Mass Effect game is that BioWare are working on

 

[hinch7]

This is going to be horrible but I'll watch out of morbid curiosity.

Wonder who they'd cast as Shepard. If it were up to me I'd try and get Henry Cavil to pull in audiences in if he isn't already tied up with the 40K series.

 

[RAIDEN1]

This has the potential to be the modern day Babylon 5! (For anyone here that remembers the show..) it was the Mass Effect of the 90s, and there were HUGE opportunities missed in making games based of that franchise, they were either in development, or just outright cancelled...and I agree this show should have been made 10 years ago...it could quite easily turn into a great movie franchise as well if done right...

 

[{insert code here}]

Amazon Studios

 

[Rockondevil]

The real question is will Seth Green be Joker.

I'd give the show a shot, but the way adaptions generally go it's going to have a solid chance of being very average.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Would love for this to happen, and more so to come out as a great show. Expectations are low but man, do I wish for this to be good.

 

[Drew1440]

Much of the joy of this series is feeling like you're making the decisions. Watching a show and playing a game is not the same friggin' thing. Sometimes I wish they would just let games be games.

Given how the Halo TV show went with the writers not even playing the actual games, it will have little in common with Mass Effect.

 

[calico]

ME has great potential for a show imo because the setting is great (and humanity being a relatively small fish in a big pond is pretty interesting), but narratively the games are pretty fucked as a trilogy. ME2 largely goes AWOL as a second act in a trilogy (which left ME3 way too much ground to cover), but adopts more of an episodic / short stories structure (which actually felt like it would work well as a more traditional series of tv). I think a straight forward adaptation of ME1 then ME2 then ME3 would feel all over the place.

If I were making this, I would be inclined to hold off on the Reaper arc and begin with the First Contact War. Have us go on that journey with humanity (S1) and introduce the viewer to the wider galaxy that way. I think this and then humanity struggling to establish itself as the newcomer within this already established galactic system (S2) is not only the more interesting story to tell, but then when we do launch into the existential threat of the Reaper arc (discovering the threat as the culmination of S2) we've spent enough time in the setting and with the people in it to give a shit about saving it.