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

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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.

 

[Zaukrie]

There will always be toxic, angry fans who are angry without any real reason to be angry.

They are not a majority of fans, but they are loud. Ignore them.

The show might be great, it might suck, it might not even make it out of the development process. We don't know enough right now to judge.

The fact that this is a video game adaptation that takes place after the game's story is not cause for alarm or anything else really. Some folks are casting aspersion on the showrunner, who's long career in Hollywood isn't 100% hits. I'm not worried about that either. I'm not really concerned at all, and will just patiently wait until the show is actually filming, then wraps, then show up in my queue on HBO Max.

If studios would ignore them..... That would be great.

 

[Dire Bare]

If studios would ignore them..... That would be great.

Some studios are learning . . . but yeah, sometimes the loud, cranky minority has an outsized impact and can change or kill projects.

 

[Zardnaar]

Some studios are learning . . . but yeah, sometimes the loud, cranky minority has an outsized impact and can change or kill projects.

Depends imho. Generally its obvious when something is in actual trouble.

 

[GreyLord]

If studios would ignore them..... That would be great.

I think it depends. I think some studios would be wiser to listen to their hardcore fan complaints and actually take it to heart.

Those fans normally have a good feel and a good idea of what works and what doesn't.

A prime example of a studio listening to the Fans and changing it's product due to that feedback instead of mocking them and blaming them was when they changed Sonic's look in the Sonic movies.

Part of the problem is that those hardcore fans have an outsized reach that influences others. I feel it is better to try to make as many people happy with your product, or at least don't make them upset before you ever release your product. Mocking fans, belittling fans, and that sort of marketing normally is not as successful as trying to appear that you are appealing to the fans instead.

A prime example of this for our community would be the marketing for 4e vs. that of 5e.

4e took a slant that prior editions were flawed, or even badly made. That those who didn't like the idea were also flawed. It had a commercial that openly mocked earlier editions. Though 4e had great sales at the start, and did decently, it never met expectations for what was wanted by the higher ups at the time. It was not as successful as 5e.

5e was marketed as trying to be adaptable to ALL editions of D&D (though it is debatable whether it actually is, the marketing was on point in trying to appeal to a broader base). It's taken a more friendly stance of putting out material and getting feedback (regardless of how much of that feedback is used, they give the appearance that everyone has voice if they want and that the information given by feedback is valuable, thus making people think that they listen and give heed to their players). They stumbled with the ball a few years back, but except for that, they've been very good at their marketing. 5e, taking the listen to your fans...approach has been far more successful than 4e ever was.

IMO...obviously.

 

[Bae'zel]

My reluctant wariness is due to my past experience consuming media based on a book, comic or video game. More often than not, the writers' "interpretations" of the characters and setting got on my nerves. I'm much more likely to watch a show or movie BEFORE reading the source material to avoid exactly this problem.

For example, I'm greatly relieved that I enjoyed the Neverending Story film as a kid before reading the book. That movie has a big place in my childhood, if I'd read the book first, it would've been disappointing for sure.

For something like this, I'd have to wait until braver souls than I (who are hardcore fans of BG3) watch and review it. If I'd known that the show used the same creatives as the game (hardly likely) I'd be more encouraged.

There are of course exceptions: I've enjoyed Fallout (although I've played all of the games, I've never been a "hardcore" fan of the mythos or canon of the setting, so my expectations were not all strict).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Those fans normally have a good feel and a good idea of what works and what doesn't.

They don't though.

This has been shown time and time again.

Those fans have a good idea of what they, personally and specifically, like and dislike, but not the larger group of people who will go and see a movie or play a game or the like. "Serious fans" have very often predicted something would a hit or a flop based on their personal tastes, and been completely wrong.

Your specific examples don't support your position. Let's look at them.

Sonic - This was immediately widely mocked. It wasn't "Sonic fans" who said it was wrong, it was literally everyone who had ever seen Sonic before, hell, even some people who hadn't but were repulsed by this creepy thing. Nobody liked the design to the point that there's been some (not entirely baseless) speculation the whole thing was a publicity stunt - because it was so far out from release it was very easy for them to "fix" it, and doesn't seem to have cost the movie a lot to do so.

So you didn't need "serious fans" to tell you this. The "serious fans" just agreed with everyone else.

4E's marketing - Again, you wouldn't need "serious fans" to tell you "insulting all the previous editions is a bad idea". You just need to not be in an echo-chamber, which apparently WotC's marketing department must have been at the time.

"Serious fans" can also get things very wrong by contributing to echo-chambers too. For example, when Blizzard wanted to introduce Real ID which would show your actual, RL email address to basically random people in WoW (potentially including your RL name - most people's did, and at the time it was extremely painful to try and change the email associated with your WoW account, and it kind of still is), they sold this as "Well everyone is called stuff like John Smith, that's not going to be a problem!" because to them, "everyone" was the extremely white, extremely male echo-chamber at Blizzard. And a lot of "hardcore fans" defended this, because they too were mostly extremely white and extremely male

A more complex example might be the Classic servers for WoW. Originally WoW's director said, famously "You think you want it but you don't!" re: Classic servers. Blizzard later changed their mind and created those servers, and initially they were a big hit (like 4E, actually), seemingly proving the previous director wrong. But the numbers have declined extremely hard, and Classic servers are now mostly just a weird place full of horrible people and the worst behaviour you'll find in WoW. The earlier director was absolutely right in that they aren't generally popular with WoW's audience as a whole, and the only people who seem to like them are a peculiar species of "hardcore fans" or "serious fans" who are quite unpleasant to be around, quite anti-social (ironic, given Classic requires more social behaviour). But he was wrong in that that specific kind of fan, and basically nobody else, does like them. In a weird way they serve as a kind of useful "self-exclusion zone" by attracting some of the worst of the worst to them, but they also unfortunately drive away returning players who think they'd like to play early WoW again, only to find it's full of incredibly obnoxious people who want to tell you how bad and dumb you are (which, like, I played early WoW, it wasn't even 10% as bad as this).

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Unlike The Last of Us, which adapted the first two video games of the same name, Baldur's Gate will be a new storyline featuring a mix of characters from Baldur's Gate 3 and new characters.

Cannot wait for them to find an excuse to write off Karlach and Lae'zel because they're harder to do in live action than everyone else.

 

[GreyLord]

They don't though.

This has been shown time and time again.

Those fans have a good idea of what they, personally and specifically, like and dislike, but not the larger group of people who will go and see a movie or play a game or the like. "Serious fans" have very often predicted something would a hit or a flop based on their personal tastes, and been completely wrong.

Your specific examples don't support your position. Let's look at them.

Sonic - This was immediately widely mocked. It wasn't "Sonic fans" who said it was wrong, it was literally everyone who had ever seen Sonic before, hell, even some people who hadn't but were repulsed by this creepy thing. Nobody liked the design to the point that there's been some (not entirely baseless) speculation the whole thing was a publicity stunt - because it was so far out from release it was very easy for them to "fix" it, and doesn't seem to have cost the movie a lot to do so.

So you didn't need "serious fans" to tell you this. The "serious fans" just agreed with everyone else.

4E's marketing - Again, you wouldn't need "serious fans" to tell you "insulting all the previous editions is a bad idea". You just need to not be in an echo-chamber, which apparently WotC's marketing department must have been at the time.

"Serious fans" can also get things very wrong by contributing to echo-chambers too. For example, when Blizzard wanted to introduce Real ID which would show your actual, RL email address to basically random people in WoW (potentially including your RL name - most people's did, and at the time it was extremely painful to try and change the email associated with your WoW account, and it kind of still is), they sold this as "Well everyone is called stuff like John Smith, that's not going to be a problem!" because to them, "everyone" was the extremely white, extremely male echo-chamber at Blizzard. And a lot of "hardcore fans" defended this, because they too were mostly extremely white and extremely male

A more complex example might be the Classic servers for WoW. Originally WoW's director said, famously "You think you want it but you don't!" re: Classic servers. Blizzard later changed their mind and created those servers, and initially they were a big hit (like 4E, actually), seemingly proving the previous director wrong. But the numbers have declined extremely hard, and Classic servers are now mostly just a weird place full of horrible people and the worst behaviour you'll find in WoW. The earlier director was absolutely right in that they aren't generally popular with WoW's audience as a whole, and the only people who seem to like them are a peculiar species of "hardcore fans" or "serious fans" who are quite unpleasant to be around, quite anti-social (ironic, given Classic requires more social behaviour). But he was wrong in that that specific kind of fan, and basically nobody else, does like them. In a weird way they serve as a kind of useful "self-exclusion zone" by attracting some of the worst of the worst to them, but they also unfortunately drive away returning players who think they'd like to play early WoW again, only to find it's full of incredibly obnoxious people who want to tell you how bad and dumb you are (which, like, I played early WoW, it wasn't even 10% as bad as this).

You and me have VERY VERY DIFFERENT memories of those two bottom items.

But hey, maybe different parts of the world saw/see different things (somehow).

Almost no one, and I mean...NO one...wants Real ID. And the only ones that would even know about that stuff with WoW (as I had no idea about this at all until you mentioned it) are not the casuals...but the fans of the game.

Obviously, some were complaining against it that were "hardcore" fans. If Blizzard did not implement it, they probably listened to the majority of their "hardcore" fans that you would like to label as not existing for some reason.

Classic servers were a pretty big hit, just like WOW. WoW itself has decreased a LOT (just as anything WoW has decreased). That's just time for most games and things like that. I don't play WoW, but the things I've seen seem very different from those that I know who do play it (though, interestingly enough, the ones that played classic servers on those not authorized before Blizzard made classic servers, and then played Classic are...from what I've seen in general...Male and White as you claim...but then..almost every WoW player I know IRL is Male and White with three exceptions so I'm not sure if that indicates anything or not.

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

Studios and production companies mainly care about ratings and viewership. Online discussion is a fairly small part of it except as promotional hype at the start or between seasons or as a bullet point on a list of why something performed below expectations. If a show is hitting big numbers they won't care what the social media chatter is.