It’s fair to say that not all Baldur’s Gate 3 fans were thrilled by last month’s news that not only is a HBO Baldur’s Gate 3 show in the works, but that it will continue the story on from the video game itself.
The adaptation will reportedly take place after the events of Larian’s much-loved RPG and feature characters from the game. Craig Mazin, who created HBO shows Chernobyl and The Last of Us, is in place as showrunner, with Chris Perkins, the former longtime Head of Story at Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, which owns the Dungeons & Dragons universe in which Baldur’s Gate 3 is set, serving as consultant.
Many fans still can’t fathom why anyone would want to continue on from the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, given its many different endings, variances in world state, and, most importantly, the vastly different outcomes for characters such as Astarion, Karlach, and Shadowheart.
There is also significant concern at the fact that Larian, the developer of Baldur’s Gate 3, is not consulting on the show. This was confirmed in a tweet from Larian boss Swen Vincke, who went on to say that Mazin had asked to visit the developer for a chat. “From the conversation we had, I think he truly is a big fan which gives me hope,” Vincke said at the time.
Now, Astarion actor Neil Newbon has said he hopes fans give HBO a chance, and avoid piling on the project before they’ve seen anything of it. Speaking to FRVR, Newbon said:
“I really hope people give them space to make the show that they want to make. It’s really important that artistic endeavours are left to cook. What they’ll do with it, who knows? But he’s [Mazin] an amazing writer. I think he’s a great showrunner as well. I think Chernobyl is a great example of how good his writing is, man. You have to see that this is the vision of people of the best story they can do with the material that they have.”
“Let them cook, man,” Newbon continued. “Let them do their thing and enjoy it. I think the worry about the internet at the moment, sometimes, is that people really pile on a lot, and they really get worried and upset. And I understand that comes from a place of love, often they’re very worried about things, but nothing’s happened yet, you know what I mean?”
Newbon went on to say “it’s healthier to watch the thing and then have a reaction to it,” and that “sometimes people get very affected by stuff they don’t know.”
HBO and Wizards of the Coast’s approach with Baldur’s Gate 3 is in stark contrast to that of Amazon and Bethesda’s for Fallout. With Todd Howard leading the charge, Bethesda is heavily involved in the creation of the smash hit Fallout TV series, which has been praised by fans for nailing the Fallout universe, tone, and aesthetic. The Fallout TV series also avoids the pitfalls of retelling the story of an existing game, nor does it feature main characters from any of the games. Instead, it’s set after the events of all the Fallout games, bringing in new characters and telling new stories, while returning to fan-favorite locations (New Vegas etc).
There will be intense scrutiny on the casting choices for Baldur’s Gate 3. The video game’s characters have become part of the culture, instantly recognizable online, and their actors as high-profile as those in the space get. The idea of an Astarion played by someone other than Neil Newbon, for example, seems almost ridiculous.
Indeed, Newbon told FRVR that he’d “love to keep playing [Astarion] if I could,” adding: “He’s not one of those characters that I’ve sort of [gone], ‘great, done my job, done.’ He is something that’s still very much exciting to me.”
Hasbro also plans for a video game follow-up to Baldur’s Gate 3, but whether that’s a Baldur’s Gate 4 that continues the story or something entirely different remains to be seen.
Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
