Amazon may be making a Mass Effect TV series — but which story could it tell?

Amazon Prime is loving the views for its Wheel of Time series, and the future for this streaming service seems to be focusing more on genre shows like the upcoming Lord of the Rings series and — to me at least more interestingly — possibly a Mass Effect series as well. A deal with Electronic Arts for rights to Mass Effect is reportedly in the works, though we don’t know exactly what that deal — or what the finished show — might look like. After the success of The Boys and now Wheel of Time and with Lord of the Rings on the horizon, you can’t blame Amazon for looking for another strong franchise, and Mass Effect would help balance all the fantasy they’re doing with some more science fictional stories.

Unfortunately all we know about this is what Deadline’s reporting, but that’s okay! We can speculate, and we do love to speculate — especially about Mass Effect. Let’s do, shall we?

Mass Effect is a big universe with lots of history, so the first thing to think about is what stories a possible show would cover. Would it just to adapt the games, with Commander Shepard fighting to defeat the Reapers and save the galaxy? Or perhaps it could go back to the discovery of the Prothean archives on Mars, leading to the discovery of the Mass Relay on the edge of the Solar System, leading up to the First Contact War with the Turians? It could even focus on stories like the Geth’s origin as the creation of the Quarians, and the Quarians’ flight from their homeward. Or the uplifting of the Krogan by the Salarians, which leads to the defeat of the Rachni, but is followed by the bloody Krogan Rebellions and the genophage. There’s no shortage of story material.

If it were up to me… which it absolutely is not… I’d make a Mass Effect series focused on anyone but Shepard. Not that I don’t love Shep, I absolutely do, but any actor taking on the role is going to be constantly compared to Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale, and that’s just not great for anyone. I’d personally prefer a FemShep, if they decided to do the Reaper storyline, but I know that’s far from a universal opinion. Bypassing that story would let us avoid the whole argument and dig into the interesting histories that Mass Effect hasn’t told us yet.

I think telling the stories that set up the game world would be a great idea, and by using the First Contact War you could introduce the audience to the various aliens of the setting at the same time the characters find out about them, which would be ideal. That could be a lot of fun for new viewers and old fans alike.

But regardless of which direction the story goes, if the original VO cast for Mass Effect doesn’t get roles in the series, I will be most upset.