Hannah has been writing about horror, sci-fi, and all things nerdy since 2021. At Collider, she covers news and conducts interviews, along with contributing features that dive deep into genre storytelling and why it works. If there’s something lurking in the shadows, she’s probably already writing about it if she's not too busy watching a tape from her VHS collection.
Astarion may have escaped Cazador's palace, defeated an Elder Brain, and potentially found something resembling a happy ending, but Neil Newbon isn't finished with everyone's favorite vampire spawn just yet. Three years after Baldur's Gate 3 became a phenomenon, Newbon is returning to the world of Astarion for a special event devoted entirely to the character's life before players met him.
We already know that Astarion's story is expanding beyond Larian Studios' RPG with Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion, the upcoming official prequel novel from award-winning author T. Kingfisher. Now, Newbon and Kingfisher are coming together to dig even deeper into that story, giving fans a rare opportunity to hear from both the actor who helped define Astarion and the author tasked with exploring a part of his life the game only allowed us to glimpse.
New York Comic Con has revealed "Before Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion's Untold Story," a panel taking place Thursday, October 8 from 12:15 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET. Newbon will join Kingfisher for a conversation celebrating Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion, with Collider's Maggie Lovitt moderating the discussion. More importantly, for anyone who has spent the last three years analyzing every scrap of Astarion lore they can find, the conversation will specifically delve into his "untold past." According to the official description, Kingfisher and Newbon will explore both Astarion's history and the creative process behind bringing one of Baldur's Gate 3's most complicated characters "from screen to page."
COLLIDER
Collider · Quiz
Collider Exclusive · Universe Personality QuizWhich Iconic Universe Do You Belong in the Most?Star Wars · Lord of the Rings · Harry Potter · Game of Thrones · Star Trek
Five legendary universes. Five completely different visions of what the world could be — or already was. One of them is the world your instincts, your values, and your particular way of existing were built for. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🚀Star Wars
💍Lord of the Rings
🧙Harry Potter
👑Game of Thrones
🖖Star Trek
QUESTION 1 / 8PURPOSE
01
What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning?Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.
QUESTION 2 / 8WORLD
02
Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit?The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.
QUESTION 3 / 8CONFLICT
03
How do you prefer your conflicts resolved?The shape of a world's conflicts tells you everything about its soul.
QUESTION 4 / 8COMPANIONS
04
Who do you want beside you when things get difficult?Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.
QUESTION 5 / 8POWER
05
What is your relationship with power?How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.
QUESTION 6 / 8MORALITY
06
How does your universe treat good and evil?A world's moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.
QUESTION 7 / 8ROLE
07
What role would you naturally fall into?Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?
QUESTION 8 / 8HOPE
08
What do you ultimately believe about the future?The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.
Your Universe Has Been ChosenYou Belong In…
Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.
You are drawn to the moral clarity of a universe where hope itself is a form of resistance.
You'd find your people in the Rebellion — a ragtag coalition of true believers held together by conviction more than resources.
Star Wars is fundamentally a story about ordinary people choosing to matter in an extraordinary conflict — and that is exactly your kind of story.
The Force may or may not be with you. But the will to use it for something larger than yourself certainly is.
Middle-earth
Lord of the Rings
You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world's beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.
Middle-earth is a world of ancient wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough small acts of courage accumulate.
You would thrive here because you value the fellowship more than the glory — the road more than the arrival.
Tolkien's universe rewards patience, loyalty, and the willingness to carry something heavy across a very long distance.
Those are not burdens to you. They are simply how you move through the world.
The Wizarding World
Harry Potter
You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what's right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.
The Wizarding World is a place of wonder hidden in plain sight, where learning is transformative and the bonds you form at school follow you into every battle.
You would flourish here because you take both the magic and the friendships seriously — and you understand that one without the other is incomplete.
Harry Potter's universe ultimately rewards those who choose to stand for something even when standing is terrifying.
That choice — made quietly, without guarantee — is something you understand completely.
Westeros · The Known World
Game of Thrones
You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.
Westeros is a world that rewards intelligence, adaptability, and the willingness to understand that every alliance is also a negotiation.
You would survive here — possibly thrive here — because you don't confuse the world as it is with the world as you'd like it to be.
Game of Thrones is a story about what happens when the idealists and the realists collide. You are sharp enough to know which one lasts longer.
Winter always comes. You are already prepared.
The United Federation of Planets
Star Trek
You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.
Star Trek is a universe where the questions matter as much as the answers, and where encountering something utterly alien is cause for wonder rather than fear.
You would belong here because you are fundamentally optimistic about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being honest about how hard that achievement is.
The Federation is the universe's most ambitious thought experiment: what if we actually got better?
You don't just hope that's possible. You think it's the only thing worth working toward.
Neil Newbon and T. Kingfisher Are Talking All Things Astarion at NYCC
Newbon's perspective on Astarion is something fans have adored from him for years. His performance is inseparable from the character players came to know in Baldur's Gate 3, right down to Astarion's mannerisms, humor, vulnerability, and carefully constructed persona. Pairing him with Kingfisher creates an opportunity to explore how that characterization informs a story set before the version of Astarion we encounter aboard the Nautiloid. There are still enormous stretches of Astarion's history that Baldur's Gate 3 leaves deliberately unexplored, particularly when it comes to the nearly two centuries he spent under Cazador's control. The upcoming novel already promises to fill in some of those blanks, but the NYCC conversation could offer our best look yet at how Kingfisher approached expanding a character whose story has become so important to players.
