Dragon Age lead writer gives RPG fans a glimmer of hope with the teaser that "anyone who didn't die onscreen could potentially show up again"

Dragon Age: The Veilguard screenshot showing the RPG's companions standing as a united group, the main protagonist at front wielding a sword — (Image credit: BioWare)

Good news, Dragon Age fans: your 'dead' faves could make a return in the future - as long as you didn't see them die right in front of your eyes.

We already know that Dragon Age: The Veilguard features some familiar faces, with Inquisition's Lace Harding and Dragon Age 2's Varric joining the fray along new companions like Emmrich the necromancer, but it sounds like more old friends could potentially make appearances in The Veilguard and beyond. In a recent interaction on Bluesky, Dragon Age lead writer Patrick 'Trick' Weekes was asked if there's any chance that Briala, who appeared in Inquisition, could make a comeback at some point, and they gave an exciting response that's potentially fantastic news for dedicated fans of characters who we thought were gone for good.

"Anyone who didn't die onscreen could potentially show up again someday," Weekes teases, which is very interesting indeed. While we won't get into spoilers here regarding who this may or may not implicate, it certainly sounds like any deaths that we didn't directly witness might not have been deaths at all. Weekes doesn't confirm that BioWare has actually done this, or is definitely planning to in the future, but even so, there's clearly no hard rule against it.

Trick Weekes, on whether Briala (or other previous game characters) could appear again in the future.#DragonAge #Veilguard pic.twitter.com/vMBCVr0h5TAugust 5, 2024

As some fans have pointed out, though, if BioWare does choose to revive a character who was previously thought to be dead, it wouldn't be the first time. For example, a certain Orlesian bard who died in Dragon Age: Origins later returned, so death has been a strange ol' thing in the RPG series for some time now.

Even so, this information has sent fans into overdrive, and there are already loads of social media posts from RPG enthusiasts hoping and begging for their faves to be granted a second chance. Will BioWare listen to their cries? Only time will tell, but at least we've been given a glimmer of hope.

"There's no canon": Dragon Age leads say The Veilguard's story and world are "a very personal thing," dependent on "what your world of Thedas is."

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I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.