HBO, Craig Mazin Are Adapting Baldur’s Gate 3 To Continue Game’s Story, Larian Seemingly Not Involved

HBO and Craig Mazin, who is currently working on Season 3 of The Last of Us, are adapting Baldur’s Gate 3 for TV. According to a report from Deadline, HBO’s Baldur’s Gate 3 adaptation will be a continuation of the game, which developer Larian Studios released in 2023 to widespread acclaim, and take place immediately after the event of the game’s finale. 

Deadline says characters “old and new” will be dealing with the ramifications of the events of Baldur’s Gate 3 in this adaptation, which The Last of Us showrunner and co-creator Mazin will write, executive produce, and showrun. Jacqueline Lesko and Cecil O’Connor will also serve as executive producers alongside Hasbro Entertainment’s Gabriel Marano, with Chris Perkins, former Head of Story at Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast subsidiary, serving as a consultant. 

“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,” Mazin said to Deadline. “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.” 

Deadline reports that Mazin plans to reach out to the voice cast of Baldur’s Gate 3 “with ideas for them to participate in the TV adaptation, if possible,” which is something he and The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann (who is also a co-creator of The Last of Us games) did in its adaptation. HBO head of drama programming and executive vice president Francesca Orsi told Deadline, “We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with Craig Mazin on Baldur’s Gate,” while Marano told the publication, “The fans have been eagerly awaiting an adaptation of Baldur’s Gate, and we could not ask for better partners than HBO and the incomparable Craig Mazin to build this world with.” 

Game Informer has reached out to Larian Studios for official word about its lack of involvement and will update this story if it learns more, but on X, Larian CEO and Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke replied, “Not to my knowledge,” when asked whether any of the studio’s writers are consulting on the show. He also added, “But [Craig Mazin] 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 truly is a big fan, which gives me hope.” 

Before that, though, Vincke posted the following to X as a quote-tweet to Deadline’s report: 

“Crazy that a story that started out in a small hotel conference room eventually evolved into a narrative inspiring enough for it to become a HBO series. We worked incredibly hard on making Baldur’s Gate 3 worthy of its legacy. Its characters and narratives are the result of many teams working together and I think I can speak for them all in saying that they’ll think this is cool and hope that what comes next will enjoy the same level of passion. The endings of BG3 were created so they could serve as narrative soil for new adventures. There’s plenty of directions they could go. I’m eager to find out which ones Craig and his team will pick. He’s reached out for a chat so we’ll have the opportunity to tell him our thoughts. Crossing fingers that the story we’re cooking up for Divinity will eventually grow to the same heights. Certainly putting in the hours.”

In response to news of this adaptation, reception online has been… not great. Fans of the series seem disappointed that Mazin is behind the project, likely an alignment of online reception to Season 2 of The Last of Us, and upset that the adaptation aims to pick up after the events of Baldur’s Gate 3. Notably, there are multiple dozen endings to the game, meaning HBO will likely canonize an ending (or aspects of various endings) to move forward with its storytelling goals; that’s somewhat antithetical to the spirit of player freedom and storytelling choices present in the Larian-developed RPG. All that to say, Mazin and HBO have a big lift on their shoulders adapting what is easily one of the most popular games of the last decade, if not all time. 

There’s no word on when production of this Baldur’s Gate 3 adaptation will begin, but Mazin currently has at least one more season of The Last of Us to get out (and it could be the series’ last). In the meantime, read Game Informer’s review of Baldur’s Gate 3, and then check out the brutal and gory trailer for Larian Studios’ next game, Divinity. After that, read why visiting the set of The Last of Us was equally boring and intense, and then read this update about why Baldur’s Gate 3 won’t be ported to Nintendo Switch 2. 

[Source: Deadline]

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