Sarah1281 wrote...
That's different, though. In both games there is a set character or characters that serve as the protagonist. I'm not saying that every decision movie!Shepard made would be canon but that the gender would have to be.
That's an absurd thing to say.
Why would Shepard's gender in the movie have to be canon beyond the movie? Beyond some artibitary reason you think it should be above and beyond his choices.
Source Material > Adaptation.
The movie isn't a new story that plugs into the game continuity like the comics or novels (which NEVER mention Shepard's gender), it's a retelling of the game, and thus in its own continuity. Just like pretty much every other video game adaptation ever.
You, and others, are worrying about absolutely nothing.
Sarah1281 wrote...
It's like the DA anime we heard about a few weeks back. If that has a HNM then that's going to look like they're trying to create a canon as well.
The Dragon Age anime is
not an adapation or directly related to the game, as far as I'm aware, but simply a story taking place within the Thedas universe.
Sarah1281 wrote...
Believe me, it never ends well. I remember all those endless debates about Revan's gender in KotOR and how the word 'canon' got thrown around every two seconds by someone who preferred Revan to be a male. 
Revan is male in the Star Wars canon because BioWare were working within someone elses universe and LFL decreed that he should be male for reference books and other sources. It's a completely different situation.
In
Star Wars, everything (unless it's branded infinites) exists within ONE continuity. The movies, the novels, the games, the comics: everything. That is not true of
Mass Effect. More's the pity. I'd have much preferred an ME movie that had nothing to do with Shepard but took place within the game canon. Instead we're getting an adaptation, which instantly renders it
outside the game canon.