D&D Movie/TV 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.

Larian Studios, which made the bestselling video game, is not involved with the TV show. When Larian CEO Swen Vincke was asked if any of Larian’s writers were contributing, he answered “Not to my knowledge. But Craig did reach out to ask if he could come over to the studio to speak with us. From the conversation we had, I think he truely is a big fan which gives me hope.”

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

Mazin 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.

 

[Parmandur]

Given that my PS5 struggles with it, I don’t think something between PS4 or PS5 has any chance of running it.

As a point of comparison, it does seem that Baldur's Gate 3 does run satisfactorily on Steam Deck (I'm not super precious about performance, honestly, especiallyfor a turn based game), and the Switch 2 has considerably better specs than the Steam Deck.

 

[charlesatan]

As a point of comparison, it does seem that Baldur's Gate 3 does run satisfactorily on Steam Deck (I'm not super precious about performance, honestly, especiallyfor a turn based game), and the Switch 2 has considerably better specs than the Steam Deck.

Ultimately depends whether the developer will take the time to optimize it for the console. The hardware is there, but a major difference between the Steam Deck and the Switch 2 is the Operating System, the video drivers, etc.; so the potential to have it run on the Switch 2 is optimistic, but boils down to execution and how much time/resources is devoted to making it run optimally on said device.

But right now it's a moot topic since Larian has stated that they do not have the authority to port it to Switch 2 (i.e. Wizards of the Coast has not approved porting it over to the Switch 2, to everyone's bafflement).

 

[Charlaquin]

As a point of comparison, it does seem that Baldur's Gate 3 does run satisfactorily on Steam Deck (I'm not super precious about performance, honestly, especiallyfor a turn based game), and the Switch 2 has considerably better specs than the Steam Deck.

That’s good to know! I don’t actually know what the switch 2’s specs are like (and frankly my tech knowledge is insufficient to understand computer specifications anyway), but “between PS4 and PS5” just sounds like it would have a very difficult time running software the PS5 itself already doesn’t run very efficiently.

 

[Parmandur]

But right now it's a moot topic since Larian has stated that they do not have the authority to port it to Switch 2 (i.e. Wizards of the Coast has not approved porting it over to the Switch 2, to everyone's bafflement).

Rights issues do seem to be a barrier, though Seen is an unreliable narrator, to out it mildly.

That’s good to know! I don’t actually know what the switch 2’s specs are like (and frankly my tech knowledge is insufficient to understand computer specifications anyway), but “between PS4 and PS5” just sounds like it would have a very difficult time running software the PS5 itself already doesn’t run very efficiently.

I see where you are coming from there, for sure. My only other option is a potato desktop that Steam won't even support anymore, st the moment, let alone BG3 (still does spreadsheets and documents fine, which is it's job, and runs lots of GOG stuff for my amusement). "Between a PS4 and a PS5" is extremely rough, because while the Switch 2 has muscle more along the lines of a PS4, it also has a chip architecture that is way, way more modern and a lot of techniques built into he hardware that simply didn't exist back then (like ray tracing), so it is not a straight line. You could also say that it is like a PS4 Pro in some aspects (like chip speed), but like a PS5 in other ways (architecture, node size, Ram). It is complex, but the gap of performance between Switch 2 and PS5 is narrower (or at least, the returns in PS5's superior hardware are diminished) compared to PS4 and Switch 1...and Switch 1 ran some crazy ports of PS4 games (Witcher, Doom 2016).

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I just find it kind of weird how everyone's so gung-ho about Mazin despite having a spotty record but in the threads about new WotC hires people are really picking apart their entire creative output, the good and the bad. It's weird to me we're extending more benefit of the doubt to a creator in one medium but not another.

Honestly, I find it weird that you are performing some incredible gymnastics to try to portray the showrunner/writer/executive producer of Chernobyl and Last of Us as a mediocre talent.

 

[Bae'zel]

Ehhh... Baldur's Gate 3 was a complete package of fantastic writing, voice acting, character design and animation. A TV show done by completely different people? Shrug.

Lae'zel ain't Lae'zel without Devora Wilde. Oh well.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Spoiler: in the trailer we will see a giant hamster.

Now I wonder if today to create fictional stages they will create CGI and after these will become photorealistic thanks AI. Let's imagine a new character's flashback set in Sigil.

If it works, the next year they could produce a more-family-friendly animated spin-off with halflings, gnomes, cute creatures...

And an episode could be a backdoor pilot episode about a psionic character.