Baldur’s Gate 3 is overshadowing the rest of Dungeons & Dragons

Not everything related to D&D has to be connected to Larian's game

The announcement of an HBO series based on the hit game Baldur’s Gate 3 has left me excited and perplexed in equal measure. As a massive fan of Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms (the setting of BG3), I can’t wait to see that fantastic world come to life in what I hope will be a worthy adaptation. But did it need to be a Baldur’s Gate 3 show?

With over 400 hours of playtime under my belt, I have nothing against the game. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience that Larian Studios created. However, I can’t help but feel that Baldur’s Gate 3’s well-earned popularity has overshadowed D&D’s rich and vast mythos. A prestige HBO drama would only serve to make the video game synonymous with the Forgotten Realms. Over the course of five decades, so many great D&D stories have been told, with plenty of memorable characters, that I just don’t think everything D&D-related has to be connected to Baldur’s Gate 3.

Just a few days ago, Wizards of the Coast announced a new Secret Lair drop series for Magic: The Gathering, called Roll for Initiative. It’s D&D-themed, and two of the seven drops are built around BG3 characters: Shadowheart and Gale. They join Astarion’s Thirst and Karlach’s Rage, meaning that four out of seven of the origin characters from the game now have a Secret Lair. That’s cool, but would it be too much to ask for a Drizzt Do’Urden Secret Lair instead?

Things are not so different in the actual D&D game. Almost every recent Forgotten Realms-related product has some connection with Baldur’s Gate 3. The game’s characters feature prominently on the cover of Heroes of Faerûn and in marketing material. Karlach is mentioned in that same book several times, too. There's also Astarion's Book of Hungers, which explores the seediest part of Baldur’s Gate through — you guessed it — the game’s iconic vampire thirst trap, Astarion.

It’s an understandable strategy, considering that the game sold over 20 million copies. However, even the best ice cream in the world will make you sick if you eat it every day. (Visit the beautiful town of Salerno, Italy, for some Nocciatella flavor. It’s also one of the locations that allegedly inspired Arc Riders.) Case in point, the HBO series being presented as a sequel to Baldur’s Gate 3 makes the value of the original text even more befuddling.

After the series’ announcement, Larian’s CEO Swen Vincke wrote on X that “the endings of BG3 were created so they could serve as narrative soil for new adventures,” but I don’t think this necessarily applies to all characters. The best example is Karlach’s ending: Unless she takes over the power of the Absolute, she is destined to either die when her infernal engine finally overheats or permanently relocate to Avernus and fight devils forever. It’s a pretty badass ending that Larian added in patch 2 to make the tiefling barbarian’s finale less tragic. But it’s also incompatible with any sort of sequel. If Karlach shows up in the HBO series (as she’s bound to do), it would invalidate her decision to either die as a free woman or spend eternity fighting the hordes of Hell. Sorry, players who had to watch her burn to death on Baldur’s Gate docks, it seems that a TV deal is the best resurrection spell in the game!

Not to contradict the creator of the game, but in my opinion, every character in BG3 goes through a defined arc that ends with some form of closure, and any follow-up risks invalidating that. More importantly, there's just no need for it. Rather than keep milking the same, exhausted cow, creatives may try to look further into the green pastures of D&D. Theoretical Baldur’s Gate showrunner Craig Mazin said to Deadline that, besides having clocked in 1,000 hours in BG3, he’s also been a Dungeon Master for 15 years. So, he's probably familiar with a little Drow ranger who's got a big panther and two scimitars, who fans have been clamoring for decades to see adapted to the screen. Or of the best vampire in D&D, who, I’m sorry folks, would eat Astarion for dinner. Literally.

But the truth is that this won’t be a Baldur’s Gate 3 show at all. According to Mazin’s interview, the series will follow new protagonists who are bound to run into beloved characters from Baldur’s Gate 3, who will meddle with the new heroes’ quest, helping or hindering them. The show will also “draw deeply from the source material of Baldur’s Gate 3,” but this sounds much more like an original story with references to the game than an actual adaptation or sequel. Larian also won’t be involved in the show.

With another Forgotten Realms live-action show in development at Netflix (which, by the way, creator Shawn Levy is still not entirely sure will move forward), this seems like a way to differentiate HBO’s production from its potential rival on Netflix. Besides capitalizing on the enduring popularity of one of the most famous RPGs in recent years, of course. (Even if it’s not as good as Baldur’s Gate 2.)

I could never complain about more mainstream attention for D&D, but this strategy risks shrinking the IP rather than expanding it. I don’t want to sound like a Drizzt fanboy (okay, too late), but there are so many characters that are just as interesting as the cast of Baldur’s Gate 3, or more: Jarlaxle, Manshoon, Strahd, Asmodeus, Cyric, and the list goes on. Stepping outside the Forgotten Realms, other settings are just begging to get a media adaptation: Dark Sun and Eberron, for example, each have unique aesthetics and vibes that would be perfect for a TV show.

Ultimately, I think that this will be a D&D show that will borrow the Baldur’s Gate label and some of the characters and story hooks from Larian’s game. So, you know, there’s still hope Drizzt will show up. Pretty please?