In an interview with IGN, Jennifer Hale, who voices Commander Shepherd in the Mass Effect games, said that she’d love to come back to the series in any capacity – even to voice a random alien instead of the lead role – but that BioWare had yet to contact her about it.
On the face of it, this isn’t so strange. After all, the ending of 2012’s Mass Effect 3 (spoilers ahead) provided a pretty definitive end for Shepherd’s character, with only one very specific option allowing them to live in the conventional sense. Then, the next game, the much-maligned Mass Effect Andromeda, was set hundreds of years in the future in a different galaxy, with an entirely different cast.
Yet the few clues that BioWare has put out for the upcoming Mass Effect 5 has seemed to focus on characters from the original trilogy, with one in particular seeming like a strong hint that Shepherd might return. At the same time, this might be less an indication of the direction of Mass Effect 5 and more of a question mark over its entire existence, given the increasingly dire straits that BioWare seem to find themselves in under parent company EA.
Is Mass Effect 5 in Development?
Mass Effect’s annual day of celebration – N7 Day – is right around the corner, and it’s fair to assume that there will be some sort of update on the game, even if it’s just the team saying “we’re still working on it.”
The fifth mainline Mass Effect title was announced in 2020, and there has been very little since then in the way of actual updates. It’s known that a “veteran team” is working on it, and that it’s led by Mike Gamble – previously a producer on the series – who confirmed earlier in 2025 that the game was still in pre-production.
While AAA game development can take a long time, some might be suspicious at how long this game in particular has been in pre-production, but details continue to trickle out, albeit slowly.
Rumours around Mass Effect 5 include; the year that the game is set (2819), a title dubbed Mass Effect: Epsilon (though this could be a simple placeholder), references to both the original trilogy and the Andromeda setting which could bridge the two halves of the series, as well as a poster which features a character in both blue and red hues – arguably a hint to the return of the Paragon/Renegade system.
Of course, all of these details could mean nothing, or they could all be subject to change – they come from 2023’s N7 Day, with 2024’s being much more subdued in order to focus on the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
BioWare Mass Exodus Has Slowed Production
It’s also worth mentioning how much the team at BioWare has changed since the days of the original trilogy. Even as the trilogy progressed, the creative force behind it was changing – something that can be seen clearly in the difference in the tone, gameplay and world-building of the first game, compared with the third.
James Ohlen (creative director on BioWare’s acclaimed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic), Drew Karpyshen (writer of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2) have since departed BioWare and formed Archetype Software – a game studio that serves as a division of publisher Wizards of the Coast.
Archetype’s first game is Exodus, and is very much positioning itself as a spiritual successor to the original Mass Effect – featuring a new, hard science-fiction setting where the player’s actions are reportedly affected by oft-forgotten considerations of space travel like time dilation.
How this will play out in practice is yet to be seen. However, the game is a third-person sci-fi, space-faring RPG with shooter elements and a companion system that certainly draws parallels with Mass Effect on a visual level. There has been a lot of pre-release material that’s focused on detailing and expanding the lore of the world, with renowned science fiction writer Peter F. Hamilton not only handling much of this, but also overseeing the world-building and writing of the game.
Exodus is expected to release in 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, and likely to be before the next Mass Effect game, meaning that it could potentially set a new bar of expectations and put Mass Effect 5 in even more of a difficult position.
Veilguard Aftermath and EA Buyout
The last game that BioWare released, 2024’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard, had been in development for 10 years and was the first title released by the studio since Andromeda in 2017. Though the game received generally positive reviews, it sold below EA’s expectations, leading to a restructuring of BioWare by EA that took the form of multiple layoffs, with many remaining team members being moved around to work on other EA properties.
This alone bodes poorly for the talent left at BioWare, as well as how much enthusiasm EA might have for putting resources towards future projects.
If that weren’t enough, though, there is also the recent controversial buyout of EA to consider, which throws any future ambitions for the company into question. Former BioWare producer Mark Darrah speculated about the billions of dollars of debt this buyout would leave EA in, as well as the resulting closures and layoffs that this would lead to; another potential stumbling block for BioWare.
Mass Effect Show Could Help Buoy the Franchise
Although Mass Effect 5 appears a long way from late stage development, there’s a silver lining for fans in that Amazon seems to be moving steadily ahead with their TV adaptation.
Following success with gaming franchises like Fallout, there could be reason to be optimistic. Daniel Casey, writer of F9 and Kin, is head writer on the show, and recent Mass Effect show casting details seemed to suggest that it would be an adaptation of the original game, though this is far from confirmed.
Due to the kind of success that TV adaptations can have in bringing new audiences to the original property, this might be seen as a prime opportunity to align the show with a game release – with the other most recent Mass Effect title being the 2021 Legendary Collection repackaging of the original trilogy.
However, if the TV show does end up being an adaptation of the original trilogy, it again makes sense that the fifth Mass Effect game would want to bring the focus back onto these characters so as to strengthen the connection between them – but until further announcements are made (potentially on November 7th), all fans can do is speculate.
