Craig Mazin just announced the most ambitious video game adaptation since his own work on The Last of Us, and the reaction from fans is already complicated.
The showrunner behind HBO’s acclaimed PlayStation adaptation and the Emmy-winning Chernobyl miniseries has confirmed he’s bringing Baldur’s Gate to television. The series will pick up immediately after the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, exploring new storylines within the established Dungeons and Dragons universe while potentially bringing back familiar faces from the 2023 phenomenon that redefined what RPGs could achieve.
There’s just one significant asterisk attached to the announcement. Larian Studios, the Belgian developer whose work on Baldur’s Gate 3 earned the game all five major Game of the Year awards and over 20 million sales, won’t be directly involved in the production.
the ownership question nobody talks about
The situation reveals something casual fans might not realize about how game adaptations actually work. Larian never owned Baldur’s Gate. They licensed the intellectual property from Wizards of the Coast, the Hasbro subsidiary that controls Dungeons and Dragons and its associated universes. When the adaptation rights get negotiated, the conversation happens between Hollywood and the IP holder, not necessarily the studio that made the game culturally relevant again.
This differs meaningfully from The Last of Us, where creator Neil Druckmann served as co-showrunner alongside Mazin. That collaboration gave the HBO series a direct pipeline to the creative vision that defined the source material. Baldur’s Gate won’t have that same structural advantage.
Mazin has reached out to Larian founder Swen Vincke for a chat, suggesting some level of consultation might occur. But consultation isn’t collaboration, and the distinction matters when you’re adapting a game famous for having nearly 17,000 ending variations based on player choice.
mazin’s credentials and his critics
The showrunner brings genuine passion to the project. He claims nearly 1,000 hours in Baldur’s Gate 3 and describes himself as a devoted D&D fan and practicing Dungeon Master. His stated goal is bringing the game’s characters to life “with as much respect and love as we can,” and he’s already exploring ways to involve the original voice cast.
That enthusiasm should count for something. Mazin understands the weight of adapting beloved source material, and his track record includes work that actually elevated games in the cultural conversation rather than embarrassing them.
But the second season of The Last of Us attracted criticism that complicates his reputation heading into another adaptation. Some viewers felt certain creative choices strayed too far from what made the original work resonate. Whether those concerns are valid or overblown depends on who you ask, but they’re now part of the conversation surrounding any Mazin project.
“Not sure if I trust anyone other than Larian with those characters,” one fan posted on X following the announcement. The sentiment reflects broader anxiety about what happens when the people who built something special get sidelined from its next chapter.
why this adaptation faces unique challenges
Baldur’s Gate 3 succeeded partly because it embraced player agency in ways that linear storytelling can’t replicate. The game let you romance companions, betray allies, make morally questionable choices, and reach wildly different conclusions based on decisions accumulated across a hundred-hour journey. That interactivity defined the experience as much as the writing or combat systems.
Television doesn’t work that way. A show must pick a canon, establish definitive character arcs, and tell one version of events that excludes countless alternatives players might have preferred. The Fallout series navigated similar challenges by setting its story in new territory rather than directly adapting game plots. Mazin is taking the opposite approach, continuing where Baldur’s Gate 3 ended.
Eurogamer journalist Vikki Blake offered cautious optimism when speaking to the BBC, noting that Mazin’s experience and passion suggest he wouldn’t take on the project without confidence in his understanding of the material. But she also acknowledged that previous successful adaptations brought development talent directly into the production process.
larian’s graceful response
Swen Vincke’s reaction to the news struck a diplomatic tone. He acknowledged that his team worked “incredibly hard” making Baldur’s Gate 3 worthy of its legacy and expressed hope that the adaptation would enjoy the same level of passion. No bitterness. No territorial claims about creative ownership. Just a founder watching something he shepherded move into someone else’s hands.
That graciousness might reflect acceptance of industry realities. Larian always knew they were custodians of someone else’s IP. The extraordinary success of Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t change the underlying business arrangements that determine who gets to decide what happens next.
The question now is whether Mazin can capture what made Baldur’s Gate 3 special without the people who actually made it special. His credentials suggest possibility. The structural absence of Larian suggests risk. Somewhere between those poles lies a TV series that will either prove adaptations can transcend their creative limitations or remind everyone why fans get nervous when beloved properties change hands.
Can a show truly honor Baldur’s Gate 3 without the studio that understood its soul?
