The Last of Us co-creator is making a Baldur’s Gate HBO series

HBO is developing a TV drama series adaptation of the popular Baldur’s Gate video games.

As first reported by Deadline, Craig Mazin, who worked with the network to create Chernobyl and co-create The Last of Us, will serve as creator, writer and executive producer on the Baldur’s Gate show. The outlet notes that he’s a big fan of developer Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3, having put over 1000 hours into the beloved RPG. (No word on whether he’s an OG fan of the original two Baldur’s Gate games from Canadian developer BioWare Edmonton, though.)

What’s perhaps most unique about this particular gaming adaptation is that it’s set to continue the story of Baldur’s Gate 3. That’s quite different from most video game adaptations, which are either original stories inspired by the source material, like Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog films or Netflix’s Arcane and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, or, in the case of Mazin’s own The Last of Us, a largely faithful retelling of the original story.

In the case of Baldur’s Gate, such an approach is especially interesting because the third game has four major different endings and thousands of possible small variations between them depending on the player’s decisions. Therefore, it’s unclear which Mazin will ultimately follow.

At the moment, Larian isn’t expected to be involved in the series, although creative director Swen Vincke mentioned on X (Twitter) that Mazin had reached out to meet with Larian for consultation. Larian is currently working on the seventh game in its Divinity series, simply titled Divinity, which it says is its biggest title to date. Mazin will instead work closely with Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast and its in-house team of Dungeons & Dragons experts.

Crazy that a story that started out in a small hotel conference room eventually evolved into a narrative inspiring enough for it to become a HBO series.

We worked incredibly hard on making Baldur’s Gate 3 worthy of its legacy. Its characters and narratives are the result… https://t.co/eOuA5JEvn4

— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) February 6, 2026

This is different from how Mazin’s The Last of Us series has been produced in close partnership with original developer Naughty Dog through the involvement of co-creator, writer and director Neil Druckmann. However, Druckmann has stepped away from the show during the ongoing development of its third season to focus his attention on Naughty Dog’s PS5 sci-fi game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

One other notable tidbit from Deadline‘s report is that Mazin plans to reach out to original Baldur’s Gate 3 cast members to discuss potential roles in his series. He did something similar in HBO’s The Last of Us by featuring new characters for original stars Troy Baker (Joel), Ashley Johnson (Ellie) and Jeffrey Pierce (Tommy), while Merle Dandridge and Jeffrey Wright reprised their game roles of Marlene and Isaac, respectively. The Baldur’s Gate 3 cast is particularly popular, like Neil Newbon (the flamboyant vampire Astarion), Jennifer English (the conflicted mage Shadowheart), Samantha Béart (the bubbly Tiefling Barbarian Karlach) and Amelia Tyler (the soothing narrator).

With all of that said, we’ll no doubt be waiting a while for the Baldur’s Gate series, given that The Last of Us Season 3 isn’t expected to start filming until next month. Production will once again return to Vancouver, with this season set to focus on Kaitlyn Dever, the mysterious young woman who shockingly killed Joel (Pedro Pascal) in front of Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Interestingly, Mazin has repeatedly stressed that at least one more season will be required to finish the series’ adaptation of The Last of Us Part II, but HBO boss Casey Bloys recently said it “certainly seems” that this upcoming third season will be the last.

Image credit: Larian Studios/Wizards of the Coast

Source: Deadline