Summary

  • Commander Shepard actor Jennifer Hale would "love to come back", but she hasn't heard anything.
  • It looks like Mass Effect 4 will follow the Destroy ending, which means that Shepard could be alive.
  • However, with Hale as in the dark as us, it looks like BioWare is choosing to keep things ambigious.

Commander Shepard has been the face of Mass Effect since its inception in 2007, but their story came to a close in ME3 over ten years ago. Still, some fans hoped to see them return in the new game, canonising the one ending where they survive, but that doesn't look likely.

"I don't think I can get in trouble because I honestly don't know anything," Jennifer Hale said in an interview with Dexerto. "I would love to come back, I would come back in a hot second... but I haven't heard from anyone yet.

I would love to come back, I would come back in a hot second.

"Let them know what you want. Email BioWare, email EA, start a campaign. I know Mark [Meer] would do it too, I'll speak for Mark."

What Happened To Shepard?

Mass Effect 3 has five possible endings. In 'Destroy', Shepard wipes out all synethic life in the galaxy to stop the Reapers, but as Shepard used cybernetics to survive the opening of ME2, they die right alongside them.

In the 'Control' ending, Shepard sacrifices themselves to merge with the Reapers, thereby taking command of their forces. They also sacrifice themselves in the 'Synethesis' ending to merge organic and synethic life, putting an end to the Reapers' destructive cycle. If none are to your liking, you can refuse to pick an ending outright, which results in the Reapers slaughtering everybody... Shepard included.

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The final ending is a variant of Destroy. If you have over 7,000 Military Strength, Shepard awakens and takes a breath in the debris of the Crucible, revealing that they survived.

With each ending having huge and contradicting ramifications on the universe, BioWare has to pick one going forward, and based on everything we've seen of Mass Effect 4 so far, it looks like it chose Destroy. We've seen Reaper and Geth corpses, contradicting Control, and Liara doesn't have the green glow everybody does after Synthesise. The only notch in this theory is that a recent poster seemingly teases the return of Geth.

Destroy leaves the door open for Shepard's return given the secret version you can unlock, but even if that is the canon ending, it looks like BioWare is choosing to leave Shepard's fate ambigious at the very least.

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Mass Effect

Action RPG Systems Released November 20, 2007 ESRB M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence Developer(s) BioWare Publisher(s) Electronic Arts Engine Unreal Engine 3 Cross-Platform Play doesn't have cross-play between PC and consoles, Cross Save yes Franchise Mass Effect
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