A HBO Baldur’s Gate show ruins the game for one major reason and we need to talk about it

HBO have just announced that they’re working on a Baldur’s Gate TV show, continuing the story of the hugely popular game. While everyone is cheering and super excited, I can’t help but be nervous about what this means for the show.

The details of the Baldur’s Gate show sound promising

So, Baldur’s Gate is getting a TV show. The production team behind the series already sounds incredibly promising, with Craig Mazin, the co-creator of The Last Of Us involved in the series. Based on the post-apocalyptic video games, The Last Of Us is one of the best and most well-received video game adaptations to date, beaten only by Arcane. It’s produced by HBO, which is known for its massive budgets and for making cinematic-style television shows with insanely stacked casts.

OFFICIAL: HBO MAX, BG3 SHOW LEAK IMAGE pic.twitter.com/iAFFvWLQFg

— the legend of seal'zel 🦭 (@llarissel) February 6, 2026

Instead of following the story of the game, Baldur’s Gate will be a continuation, which I think is the right way to go. As a choice-based story rich game, playing Baldur’s Gate is a different experience for every player. Who you choose to join you on your adventure, what areas you skip or explore, who you choose to romance, all of these elements completely affect the gameplay. So creating a Baldur’s Gate show strictly based on the third game makes no sense. But even though it’s the best option out of two, a continuation still worries me.

A Baldur’s Gate show will force a cannon storyline

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As the story of Baldur’s Gate 3 is so customisable, a continuation will be too. Every detail that features in this continuation will mean that this is now the new cannon for Baldur’s Gate. So for example, if your Baldur’s Gate storyline allowed Astarion to become an Ascended Vampire by the end, if this doesn’t continue in the series, it kind of ruins the immersion of the game.

genuinely how it felt opening up twitter tonight only to be met with what could be the worst news ever to every bg3 fan out there
pic.twitter.com/0eBQWCNUn6

— bbl hollis (@galesleftball) February 6, 2026

We’ve seen a similar issue with the Fallout series, where instead of including one of the factions from New Vegas, creators chose to basically write it out of the show, while killing off the leader of Caesar’s Legion. Die-hard fans of the game where understandably upset, and I fear the Baldur’s Gate show will create similar rifts.

It’s really cool that a game as popular and influential as Baldur’s Gate is getting a TV show with a big budget blockbuster level productions studio, but the writing team has a huge responsibility to create a storyline that doesn’t ruin the original game.

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Featured image via Steam