D&D General There’s a Baldur’s Gate TV Show Coming!

According to Deadline, there’s a TV show based on Baldur’s Gate 3 coming from US TV studio HBO and the co-creator of The Last of Us—another TV show based on a popular video game.

Craig Mazin will “create, write, executive produce and showrun” the TV adaptation. Other executive producers include Hasbro's Gabriel Marano, plus Jacqueline Lesko and Cecil O'Connor.

Chris Perkins—who used to work at WotC—will be acting as a consultant for the show.

The show will be a sequel to the video game, rather than a retelling of it (as was done with The Last of Us).

Marin said “After putting nearly 1000 hours into the incredible world of Baldur’s Gate 3, it is a dream come true to be able to continue the story that Larian and Wizards of The Coast created. I am a devoted fan of D&D and the brilliant way that Swen Vincke and his gifted team adapted it. I can’t wait to help bring Baldur’s Gate and all of its incredible characters to life with as much respect and love as we can, and I’m deeply grateful to Gabe Marano and his team at Hasbro for entrusting me with this incredibly important property.”

The show will feature both characters from Baldur’s Gate 3 and new characters.

Separately, Netflix is still producing Shawn Levy’s Forgotten Realms based TV show.

 

[Lidgar]

We need to start a thread speculating which actors will be portraying each of the main characters.

 

[mearls]

I don't know what "on tilt" means, but it seemed like folks really didn't know what franchise model meant, or maybe it was just me who didn't know.

I don't know if the Netflix series will have nudity, but BG3 on HBO 110% will, its not even a question. Sooo excited for this, but I need to get some sleep.

"On tilt" is a poker term I first encountered in FPSes. It means to be emotionally upset.

 

[Parmandur]

Humorous that they are working with HBO and Netflix, since they are moving towards merger at any rate.

Could be good.

 

[mearls]

I don't want to oversell this, but folks need to remember that Chris was the go to guy for the directors of the D&D movie.

When I worked on D&D, we saw a number of movie pitches. The terrible ones all shared something in common - they had no interest in hearing feedback. The guys working on the D&D movie actively sought it out. I got pulled into a call one time to talk about whether the druid could use wildshape to turn into an owlbear. They had that question because they knew she couldn't RAW. Because they played D&D! That's the secret sauce behind that movie.

The fact that the people behind this thought to grab Chris as a consultant is fantastic. Chris is not the kind of person to be happy getting a paycheck to be ignored.

 

[OB1]

Might upset peopke as they'll have to picked a Canon ending.

I suspect they'll go with the obvious "good" endings.

Not to fussed as they kinda have to do that.

People get upset about anything. Doubt it will be a big deal.

I think you are right about the good endings, plus maybe a redemption Durge who sacrificed himself instead of a Tav. Probably the cleanest way to do it.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Think it’s an inspired choice to have it take place immediately after BG3 ends. I suspect the Netflix show will be more PG-13 DaDHAT like in tone while this aims more MA like the game.

With the popularity of BG3, I could see this finally recapturing the audience of peak GoT for HBO.

Biggest wants:
Astarian’s underdark city of vamps
Karlach & Will in the Hells
Laezl in the Astral Sea

I would think a showrunner has to balance entertaining players of the game, those who are recently introduced to fantasy, complete atheists when it comes to fantasy... and the super fans who will have the slightest hint of what you are talking about here . I wouldn't count on any of that, unless the showrunner can accommodate both your wants and the aforementioned needs. What you should hope for is a super fan showrunner who will try their damnedest to do it all.

 

[Spellslinging Sellsword]

This is excellent news. HBO will be a great place for a BG3 show.

 

[Marandahir]

Smart choice to play off of a very popular game.

But I still won't watch it until they bring BG3 to Switch 2.
If they can't do that, then I'm not interested in watching a sequel show.
And I'm a fan of BG 1 & 2!

(I enjoyed OG Dark Alliance but given that we only got Part 1 on GameCube, I am extremely cautious about investing my time and effort in another WotC video game setting when I'm a Nintendo ride or die video gamer).

 

[Parmandur]

Smart choice to play off of a very popular game.

But I still won't watch it until they bring BG3 to Switch 2.
If they can't do that, then I'm not interested in watching a sequel show.
And I'm a fan of BG 1 & 2!

(I enjoyed OG Dark Alliance but given that we only got Part 1 on GameCube, I am extremely cautious about investing my time and effort in another WotC video game setting when I'm a Nintendo ride or die video gamer.

Yeah, that is pretty make or break for me ever playing the game as well.

 

[OB1]

I would think a showrunner has to balance entertaining players of the game, those who are recently introduced to fantasy, complete atheists when it comes to fantasy... and the super fans who will have the slightest hint of what you are talking about here . I wouldn't count on any of that, unless the showrunner can accommodate both your wants and the aforementioned needs. What you should hope for is a super fan showrunner who will try their damnedest to do it all.

Well, I’d argue that those three threads would make for entertaining TV even for the uninitiated

Besides the article suggests that the main characters of the show will be a lower level party, with the Heroes from BG3 getting the NPC treatment.