Diablo 5 Has A Surprising Connection To Dragon Age
'My experience with traditional RPGs has definitely been a strength,' Diablo 5 writer Jennifer Hepler tells Polygon
While Diablo 5 has made a big splash at BlizzCon 2026, some role-playing game fans may have missed the pedigree of some of its developers. Not only are series stalwarts like game director Joe Shely and production director Tiffany Wat working on the follow-up to Diablo 4, a notable former BioWare developer is serving as Diablo 5's narrative director: Jennifer Brandes Hepler.
That's great news for Dragon Age fans, who will get another taste of Hepler's narrative work in 2029.
Who is Jennifer Hepler?
Hepler was previously a senior writer at BioWare, where she contributed heavily to the first three Dragon Age video games. In particular, Hepler really fleshed out the dwarven side of Thedas and many of Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition's most beloved characters. If you enjoy the writing and characters of the original Dragon Age trilogy, her involvement with Diablo 5 makes the game's narrative potential much more interesting.
While Dragon Age 2 is fondly remembered nowadays, at the time of the game's release, players did not take kindly to the sequel's reduced scope and issues with the combat. Shortly after Dragon Age 2's release, comments made by Hepler years prior about combat in video games were weaponized by online provocateurs, who tried to pin Dragon Age 2's biggest flaws on Hepler's involvement.
As a result, Hepler experienced a vitriolic wave of harassment and threats. She would go on to leave BioWare in 2013 for family reasons, contributing to other games and books about women in the video game industry. Her work on Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Inquisition has stood the test of time, and public opinion on Dragon Age 2 has also greatly changed. In 2025, Hepler joined Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo 5 team as narrative director, marking her return to AAA RPG game development.
When asked to expand on the player's connection to Diablo in the new game at a group Q&A, she teased that "it's going to be a very core part of the story, and we want to really let the player feel like it is their own story to shape."
Does Diablo 5 have any Dragon Age connections?
So far, Blizzard has teased that Diablo 5 is set in a world where Diablo has won and taken over the western continent. Much of the narrative will be set around a tight-knit caravan of characters fighting back against those nefarious forces. The talk of caravans and well-written companion characters certainly harkens back to Dragon Age, so I asked Hepler how her work on Dragon Age and other RPGs informed Diablo 5's narrative.
"Definitely the caravan, I think, brings some of the best elements of traditional RPGs into Diablo's ARPG format, of giving you that sort of Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age campsite where you can interact with your followers," Hepler said in response. "They're not going to be Dragon Age followers where you level up their skills and give them clothing and stuff, but they will be followers with personalities and coming back to them. So I think that my experience with traditional RPGs has definitely been a strength in building that out."
Diablo 5 will be released in spring 2029. No new Dragon Age is confirmed to be in the works, as BioWare is focused on the next Mass Effect game.