HBO Is Making a ‘Baldur’s Gate’ TV Present

We’re happening, down, down by the river, and again to the town of Baldur’s Gate… albeit on TV, relatively than in a game.

Deadline studies that HBO is working with Hasbro to develop a Baldur’s Gate TV sequence, which shall be set instantly after the occasions of Larian’s third entry within the beloved RPG series. Craig Mazin, who has been the at-times-controversial determine behind HBO’s different big-ticket online game adaptation, The Final of Us, will create, write, government produce, and showrun the brand new sequence.

Jacqueline Lesko, Cecil O’Connor, and Hasbro Leisure’s Gabriel Marano will be a part of Mazin as government producers, whereas Chris Perkins—the previous senior story designer for Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast, who jumped ship from the corporate to affix actual-play firm and rival TTRPG designer Crucial Function final 12 months—will function a marketing consultant on the sequence.

Baldur’s Gate 3 noticed an unlikely crew of characters introduced collectively by the specter of the Cult of the Absolute—itself a entrance for the machinations of the sinister ilithid Mindflayers and a plot to invade the Forgotten Realms—and save the town of Baldur’s Gate from sure doom, generations after the occasions of the primary two video games within the trilogy. It was launched in 2023 to important acclaim and mass success, and developer Larian repeatedly confirmed that they might not be accountable for developing a fourth game within the sequence within the wake of its reception, leaving Hasbro with the reins on this explicit imaginative and prescient of Dungeons & Dragons after bidding farewell to the sport with an open-ended epilogue that teased the potential for additional adventures for the social gathering, six months after the occasions of the primary recreation.

Since then, Hasbro has struggled to capitalize on the recognition of Baldur’s Gate 3, largely sticking to merchandise (some better than others) and a few awkward integrations of key characters from the sport into initiatives just like the scrapped Digital Tabletop system Project Sigil. However a TV present continuation additionally faces a sequence of challenges for Hasbro and HBO alike to beat: the strongly baked-in popularity of the performers who introduced Baldur’s Gate 3‘s characters to life with followers, how the present approaches offering a “canonical” conclusion to the player-driven choices of the game, and even the very nature of its central customizable protagonist, Tav.

The place different online game diversifications have selected making an attempt to hew as intently as doable to the supply materials, going their own way, or making an attempt to avoid that issue entirely, a Baldur’s Gate TV present can have a whole lot of hurdles to deal with to get its viewers on board, properly earlier than it gathers its social gathering and ventures forth.

Need extra io9 information? Try when to anticipate the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every thing you must learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.