It seems that Amazon is looking to follow in the footsteps of its founder Jeff Bezos by venturing out into space, with Deadline reporting that the streaming giant is close to signing a deal to develop a TV adaptation of BioWare and Electronic Arts’ acclaimed video game series Mass Effect.
Taking place in the late 22nd century after mankind has discovered faster-than-light travel and joined an interstellar community of alien civilisations to colonise the Milky Way, Mass Effect sees players fighting to save the galaxy from the threat of the Reapers, an ancient sentient machine race which emerges every 50,000 years to wipe out all organic life.
A critical and commercial success, Mass Effect’s original story spanned a trilogy of titles between 2007 and 2012, while the series relaunched with a fourth instalment entitled Mass Effect Andromeda in 2017. A remastered compilation of the original trilogy was released earlier this year as Mass Effect Legendary Edition, while a fifth game in the main series is also believed to be in development.
As mentioned in Deadline’s report, Amazon has been looking to increase its output in the sci-fi/fantasy genres and views Mass Effect as prime source material for this key programming area. The streamer is coming off the successful launch of its series adaptation of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, and also has next year’s hugely-ambitious, hugely-expensive The Lord of the Rings series on the horizon.
