Wormholes Won’t Save Your Favorite Companions in Mass Effect 5

I want to believe. I really do. That somehow wormholes or Mass Relays or god-tier tech will undo 600 years of separation and let us walk the halls of the Normandy again.

But here’s the thing: the years still passed.
And the people we loved… probably did too.

A Theory Worth Watching: Wormholes and the Return to the Milky Way

I recently came across this great YouTube video by Paragon7 suggesting Mass Effect 5 might introduce wormhole travel to bring the Tempest crew back from Andromeda to the Milky Way to find a doomed Earth.

It’s a cool theory — well thought out, rooted in Mass Effect’s deep sci-fi lore, and absolutely worth your time.
The gist: humanity may have discovered or engineered wormhole tech, which would allow them to travel between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies without waiting centuries more. This could open the door for the two timelines to finally merge.

And honestly? It’s smart. If Bioware wants to bridge the original trilogy with Andromeda, wormholes are a logical way to do it without straining canon too hard.

But while that theory is exciting, it also got me thinking about something darker — and far more emotionally devastating.

Wormholes Won’t Reverse Time: 600 Years Still Passed

Even if you cross galaxies in an instant, you don’t reverse history.
More than six centuries have gone by since the Reaper War. And that matters.

The characters we knew, the relationships we built — they didn’t just freeze in place. They kept living. Or, more likely, they lived and died.

• Garrus Vakarian, our beloved space sniper? Dead.
• Miranda Lawson? Unless her perfect DNA will make her immortal, she's dead too.
• Kaidan and Ashley, if you let either survive? Long gone.
• Tali’Zorah? Even if her immune system lasted, her time wouldn’t.

Only a few companions from the original trilogy could realistically still be alive:

• Liara T’Soni is shown in the trailer, so we know she'll be there. Thanks to the Asari’s thousand-year lifespan, we might see more Asari familiar faces.
• Grunt, Wrex, or Drack, due to Krogan resilience and extended lifespans.
• Maybe EDI, if any trace of her survived post-Destruction ending. (same for Legion).

As far as I know, nobody else can last that long.

That’s it. That’s the heartbreaking truth.
Wormholes might bring us home — but not to the galaxy we left.

The Emotional Fallout: A New Galaxy With Old Ghosts

There’s something powerful about this realization.
Because if Mass Effect 5 does use wormholes to reconnect the timelines, the result won’t be some triumphant reunion — it’ll be a reckoning.

Imagine walking through the ruins of the Citadel.
Finding the old terminals of the Spectre office, or the shattered remains of the Normandy, preserved in a museum you never got to visit.
Your old squadmates aren’t waiting in the war room — their faces are holograms in a “Heroes of the Reaper War” exhibit.

That’s what makes this theory so interesting to me. It’s not just about sci-fi mechanics. It’s about how Bioware might use this to explore grief, legacy, and what it means to be a relic in a galaxy that has moved on.

Why Shepard’s Return Still Makes Sense — But Only If It’s Earned

There’s one character who might survive this time gap — and not just metaphorically.

Commander Shepard.

If Shepard returns, it can’t just be for fan service. That’s a cheap out. But there’s a deep lore reason it could make sense: The Cipher.

In Mass Effect 1, Shepard is imprinted with Prothean knowledge — a raw, semi-conscious neural language that connects them to an extinct civilization. Later, with the help of a Prothean squadmate (Javik), Shepard gains even more insight into this ancient race.

In Andromeda, we meet the Jardaan — a mysterious species responsible for creating the Heleus cluster’s Remnant tech and shaping the worlds that the Initiative colonizes. While the connection isn’t confirmed, many fans believe the Jardaan are an evolved offshoot or derivative of the Protheans.

If that's true, then Shepard is the only person in the galaxy with the potential to interpret, resist, or even influence Jardaan tech on a subconscious level.

Why would he need to? Because the Jardaan will start a war with the Milky Way galaxy. Paragon7's video goes a lot deeper into this so I suggest you watch it.

That gives Bioware a perfect narrative reason to resurrect Shepard.
Not just as a soldier — but as a translator of lost knowledge. A relic who can still speak the old language of the gods.

Mass Effect 5 Has a Chance to Embrace Both Loss and Legacy

The next Mass Effect doesn't need to retcon the past. It needs to confront it.
If wormhole travel connects Andromeda and the Milky Way, the story isn’t about reuniting the old team — it’s about walking into a galaxy where their absence is the most powerful presence in the room.

It’s not just fan nostalgia. It’s emotional weight.

If done right, this could be the most powerful Mass Effect story yet — one that confronts:

• Grief over what’s been lost
• The burden of carrying history into the future
• And the question of whether one person can ever matter in a galaxy that’s already moved on

Wormholes might open a path back.
But they won’t take us back in time.
They'll give us a chance to experience everything we missed.

Your Turn: Do You Want Shepard Back?

Would you want Shepard to return — even if it meant acknowledging that everyone else is gone?

And do you think wormhole travel is a clever way to merge Andromeda and the original trilogy? Or would you rather keep those timelines separate?

Drop your thoughts in the comments or let’s talk about it in the Geek Peek Discord.
I’d love to hear what this theory makes you feel — not just what you think.