Mass Effectis one of the richest gaming journeys when it comes toromance options and love stories. Throughout the series, each game features multiple characters that offer fully fleged love stories, and these are often the most memorable parts of any given playthrough. One of the most interesting romances though could have been very different.
Samantha Traynor arrives in Mass Effect 3, and while not an active member of your combat crew, she is constantly by Commander Shepard’s side. She’s also, in a first for the series, a lesbian-only romance option, with your shuttle pilot Steve Cortez the first gay male romance option. However, Traynor could have sounded very different, asactor Alix Wilton Regan told us recently in a sit-down interviewafterTales of Kenzera: Zau, which she helped produce, won at the BAFTA Game Awards.
Samantha Tranyor “Could Have All Been Very Different”
“I did audition before I became Traynor,” Wilton Regan said. “I was auditioning for EDI. That was quite funny. That could have all been very different, guys.” Though Wilton Regan has mentioned previously auditioning for Mass Effect before getting Sam, this seems to be the first time she’s expanded into what came next, and how her role as such a vital character in Mass Effect’s canon came to be.
Wilton Regan is no stranger toBioWare, having appeared in everyDragon Agegame to date - most notably as protagonist the Inquisitor inDragon Age: Inquisiton. No character has felt more like home than Sam, however. “I love Sam because also Sam’s a Londoner. When they were like, ‘We loved your audition. We just don’t think it’s quite the right place for you in the game.’ I was like, ‘So what’s gonna happen?’ They’re like, ‘You’re gonna be a Londoner.’ Straight up. And I was like, ‘Cool, I’m down because I am a Londoner born and bred. I’m down. Take me to your master.’”
Mass Effect has always had progressive romance options. Liara T’Soni, technically genderless but highly femme coded, could be romanced by all players in each entry, though you did need to carry over a romance from the first game to pick it up in Mass Effect 2. Meanwhile, Kaiden Alenko is a bisexual option in Mass Effect 3, though he was a straight-female-only option in the original.TheGamer also previously revealed that Jack was written as pansexual in Mass Effect 2, though this was changed to straight-male-only before launch, and stayed this way in Mass Effect 3.
Modders also discoveredgay romance recordings for Tali, Thane, Miranda, and Jacob (as well as Jack), although these may be accidental recordings of scripts written for the other Shepard, given one of male Shepard actor Mark Meer’s lines is “we’re both women”. All we do know is Traynor, the first actual lesbian romance option, could have had a different actor if her actual performer had ended up as EDI.
