Mass Effect universe “as rich as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars”- says film screenwriter

Mass Effect movie screenwriter Mark Protosevich said at the Mass Effect Comic-Con panel that the Mass Effect universe is as rich as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. “I’ve been offered various games over the years and initially they can be very attractive, like a very attractive girl, but when you then sit down and talk with them, you might not necessarily find a lot of depth of character there,” he said.

“In the early days, there was this attraction to the idea of let’s try to recreate this experience of it looks like this, it feels like this in a game, instead of really pausing and asking is this a good story? and is this an interesting world? Does it have interesting themes and all the aspects that make a really good film? I think most games would fail that litmus test, but this one doesn’t. This game, I think, is incredibly unique.

“The great thing about Mass Effect is, this is a really rich world and what [executive producer] Casey [Hudson] and his team have done is really create this amazing universe that’s as rich as Star Wars, as rich as Lord of the Rings. There are so many different offshoots and different characters and so it’s a challenge to condense that into one feature length film. We’re solely concentrating on the first game right now, but we are following and honouring that [wider] story.”

The movie is supposed to come out next year (most probably), but no concrete release date is given.