In recent years, adaptations of games into films/series have clearly regained momentum. The latest Fallout arouses curiosity, particularly regarding a live-action treatment for Dragon Age.
David Gaider, head writer of the Dragon Age franchise, spoke on the subject. This took the form of a response to a post on X.com (formerly Twitter) from film critic Darren Lucas, who wondered what live-action adaptation would follow up the excellent Fallout series. Here’s what he had to say and what came out of it.
A live-action adaptation of Dragon Age, a good idea?
Unlike Fallout, of which this is the first adaptation, the Dragon Age franchise is no stranger to it. In 2022, Netflix had indeed produced Absolution, an animated series of rather good quality, but nothing more. While Dreadwolf is finally approaching long development, the idea of an original live-action series would not be totally outlandish to create excitement.
However, this does not seem to be the opinion of David Gaider, head writer of Dragon Age at Bioware. He actually responded in the negative to Darren Lucas’s aforementioned post. “ I guess everyone expects me to say Dragon Age as a strong candidate for a live-action series. But I think that would be a terrible idea. I can indeed tell you right now that a show about a group of adventurers in a fantasy world D&D: Thieves’ Honor Would not be my first choice. Nor the second. Nor the third “.
The door is not completely closed, but…
“ If you take away the interactive elements of Dragon Age, you’re left with a fairly basic fantasy story. It would take more effort to distill all the elements that make them all unique in a live-action series », he adds. He does not stop at the franchise for which he works. According to him, other games in the fantasy genre would not go well with a live-action adaptation. He cites in particular The Elder Scrolls (and Todd Howard seems to be of his opinion) or even Baldur’s Gate 3 (the actor playing Astarion is not against the idea, however). David Gaider, however, does not close the door, saying to himself “ happy to write for such a project ”, provided it’s worth it.
But what about BioWare’s other flagship franchise: Mass Effect? David Gaider unfortunately does not seem to be more charmed by this prospect. “ Then again, I find it hard to imagine a series that doesn’t already do what has been done a dozen times. The Halo series, for example, could very well have been called Mass Effect (does it even deserve to be called Halo?),” he says. However, we learned three years ago that Amazon was on the verge of acquiring the rights to adapt this fascinating video game space opera. We have not had any news on the subject since. Perhaps the enormous success of the Fallout series will motivate BioWare to reconsider its position regarding the universe of Shepard and company? However, nothing is less certain… a bit like a release window for the next Mass Effect game, or even for the moment Dragon Age Dreadwolf.