Mass Effect 4 has been the source of much speculation ever since its announcement in 2020, and recent footage unveiled on this year's N7 Day may hold an important clue as to the identity of the game's protagonist. Commander Shepard became a video game icon, and though their story ended a decade ago with Mass Effect 3, Shepard has left behind an immutable legacy for the other Mass Effect games to follow.
Though Mass Effect: Andromeda failed to live up the quality that people had come to expect from the Mass Effect trilogy, its release still found commercial success, and BioWare was given the opportunity to fix most of its major bugs and shortcomings. Regardless, the writing was on the wall for the Mass Effect spinoff: BioWare needed to pivot, and no DLC expansions were produced for Mass Effect: Andromeda since. If Ryder wasn't going to pick up Shepard's mantle as the next Mass Effect protagonist, then there was only one sensible direction for the franchise to take.
YouTuber Baun Diesel noticed that the latest video teaser posted by BioWare had a reflection on the bottom-left of the screen – not unlike the way Shepard got introduced in the first game of the saga. Mr. Hulthen took this clue a step further to its natural conclusion, and hypothesized that BioWare may have just unveiled the identity of the next Mass Effect protagonist. The reflection quite curiously resembles the iconic N7 stripe found on Commander Shepard and Alec Ryder's armor, carrying with it a fairly straightforward implication.
No, it does not mean that Commander Shepard is returning as the playable protagonist of Mass Effect 4. However, one could claim with confidence that the next hero of Mass Effect will follow in Shepard's footsteps as an N7 operative. As Mr. Hulthen points out in the video, the N7 designation is hardly exclusive to Shepard, and it would be a great way to thematically bridge the game with the original trilogy.
As it stands, BioWare has revealed that Mass Effect 4 takes place in Andromeda and the Milky Way, with characters like Liara T'Soni playing some part in its narrative – implying a return to the familiar, and a direct continuation of the story that had once been concluded with Mass Effect 3. However, with Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in development at BioWare, it will take a while until the developers properly turn their attention to the next Mass Effect game. Until then, fans will have to make do with these morsels of info – which, at the very least, tell that BioWare has a confident vision in mind for the sequel, and will patiently unveil it to the players over the next few years.
Mass Effect 4 is in development.