Mass Effect TV Show Won’t Follow the Original Trilogy — But There’s One Fan-Favorite It Can’t Afford to Cut

If Amazon really is steering Mass Effect away from a straight Commander Shepard redo, fine. Makes sense. Everybody played a different Shepard anyway. But if we are moving on from the Reapers run, there is one non-negotiable for me: do not sideline Garrus Vakarian.

What Amazon is changing

The Mass Effect series in development at Amazon Studios is not a retelling of Shepard vs. the Reapers. The plan is to chart a new path instead of adapting a story that, in the games, shifts wildly based on player choices. Since every Shepard is basically custom-built by the person holding the controller, locking one version into canon for TV would inevitably alienate a chunk of the audience. So, new direction. Fair call.

Why Garrus has to make the jump to TV

Shepard can sit this one out. Garrus should not. He is more than a former C-Sec officer or the galaxy’s most patient sniper endlessly running calibrations. Across three games, he’s the rare main squadmate who almost everyone rallies around. He’s the steady hand, the loyalty personified, the one character who rarely drifts into moral mush.

• He’s the emotional constant of the trilogy: unwaveringly loyal to Shepard, from start to finish.
• His arc actually evolves: from by-the-book cop to hardened leader, without losing his dry humor.
• He grounds the big, bombastic sci-fi with character work that feels human (you know what I mean).
• He’s a natural connective tissue between old and new stories without hijacking the spotlight.

Cutting Garrus wouldn’t read as brave; it would read as empty.

So what does a Shepard-free story look like?

Honestly, liberating. The Mass Effect universe is massive, and stepping away from one ship and one commander opens up corners the games only hinted at. New protagonists, new conflicts, and new species dynamics can finally breathe on TV in a way the trilogy’s focus never fully allowed.

But even with a clean slate, the show will need some emotional continuity. A few returning faces with real history can anchor the new plot without dragging it back to the old one. That’s Garrus in a nutshell: a perfect bridge between eras who won’t overshadow fresh leads. Pair him with one or two other crucial veterans and you’ve got just enough connective tissue to make Shepard’s absence feel intentional, not like a hole.

Anyway, that’s where I’m at. New story? Yes. Garrus? Also yes. If he’s not on the squad, I’m going to have questions.