Report: Amazon Studios to develop Mass Effect television show

Amazon Studios is reportedly nearing a deal to create a television series based on Mass Effect.

As reported by Deadline, the retail giant turned media company is keen to expand its roster of fantasy series after developing projects based on The Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time, and has EA and Bioware's popular sci-fi franchise in its sights. 

Earlier this year, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition project director Mac Walters told Business Insider he believes it's a "matter of when, not if" someone attempts to adapt Mass Effect, and said a television show would be the best fit for a "story that's as fleshed out as Mass Effect."

"When we build out a Mass Effect game, we have a backbone, or an overall story that we want to tell, but each level or mission is like its own TV episode," said Walters. 

"It doesn't get written ahead of time. It gets written at the time that we get to it. So it gets added to the main story and sometimes the main story gets adjusted because we did something really cool in that 'episode.' So long-from storytelling is a great place for game franchises."

After finishing work on the critically acclaimed Mass Effect trilogy in 2012, Bioware returned to the franchise with Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017. Andromeda, however, received a mixed reception, and BioWare chose to follow-up on that project with a remaster of the original trilogy.

The EA-owned studio is currently working on a new, unnamed entry in the series, dropping a number of teases that seem to hint at the return of fan favourite characters.