
'Mass Effect' Series Moving Forward With 'Star Trek' Writer
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
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All the way back in June 2021, "Mass Effect: Legendary Edition" project director Marc Walters told Business Insider that it was "not a matter of if, but when" that "Mass Effect" was adapted to the screen. That "when" just got a lot closer with the hiring of a showrunner.
Deadline reports that Amazon MGM Studios, which has been working on developing a "Mass Effect" series since 2021, has hired "Star Trek Beyond" writer Doug Jung as showrunner of the project.
Read More: Everything We Know About Netflix's Season 4 of 'Ginny & Georgia'
Jung's other credits include "The Cloverfield Paradox" and more recently the Jason Momoa-led Apple TV+ series "Chief of War". He also wrote for "Mindhunter", "Big Love", and extensively for the crime drama "Dark Blue".
Key art for Mass Effect shows Commander Shepard and his allies against a space backdrop
Key art for Mass Effect shows Commander Shepard and his allies against a space backdrop
Electronic Arts
Jung will be working alongside Dan Casey, who Deadline reports has already been writing for the project for the past year.
Jung and Casey will produce. Also producing are Ari Arad and Emmy Yu of Arad Productions, Michael Gamble of Electronic Arts, and Karim Zreik of Cedar Tree Productions.
The first "Mass Effect" game was released in 2007, putting the player in control of Commander Shepard, a human soldier who finds himself on a quest to stop the ancient, malevolent A.I. villains known as the Reapers.
Shepard's story was told in a total of three games, and then in 2017 came a story following a brand new group of heroes, "Mass Effect: Andromeda". Along the way were the mobile games "Mass Effect Galaxy" and "Mass Effect Infiltrator".
Perhaps one of the biggest and obvious questions fans will want to have answered about the "Mass Effect" adaptation - assuming it adapts the story of the original game trilogy - is what gender Commander Shepard will be.
The "Mass Effect" games are known for letting players make big choices that impact the outcome of the games, including the gender of the hero.
The games also present the players with choices that can mean the life or death of many of the story's chief characters.
Of course, there's no guarantee that the "Mass Effect" TV series will adapt the original trilogy. Like most popular video game franchises, "Mass Effect" is still expanding. "Andromeda" took the story in another direction and there is a fifth installment on the way.
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