What’s Known About Amazon’s Fallout Series
Article by Kieran Burt.
Back in 2020, Amazon and Fallout owner Bethesda announced that there would be an adaptation of the much loved video game series on Amazon Prime, releasing a short teaser on Twitter. Two years later, audiences are finally getting some casting information about the show, and some information about the creative team. Plot details are still scarce, but there is a wealth of in-game lore that the creators will be able to pull from.
The 2020 teaser for the series reveals a little hint of information about the adaptation, with the reveal that the show will be a co-production with Amazon Studios and Westworld’s creator Johnathan Nolan’s and Lisa Joy’s production company Kilter Films. Todd Howard, the director of Bethesda Studios, is attached in an executive producing role.
In January of 2022, audiences got news from Variety that Johnathan Nolan would be more closely involved with the series, and will direct the first episode of the show. Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner will be co-showrunners. Robertson Dworet is perhaps best known for writing the screenplay for 2018’s Tomb Raider, and Wagner for his work on Portlandia.
In March, Variety managed to confirm the two leads for the series, in Ella Purnell and Walton Gnoggins. It’s unknown who these actors will be playing, though Variety claims that Gnoggins will be a ghoul (a zombie like creature created by radiation), and Purnell will be an upbeat and uncannily direct with an all-America can-do spirit, an intensity in her eyes says she might just be a tiny bit dangerous.
Not much is known about the plot, however the creators won’t be short of information about the Fallout world. The first game, titled Fallout, was released in 1997, and was a top-down role playing game set in an America that’s devastated by nuclear weapons, with the protagonist emerging from one of the various Vaults around the country. Fallout 3 and beyond moved the series into an open world action RPG, and Fallout 76 made it into a MMORPG.
The most recognisable parts of Fallout has to be the Power Armour, full body suits that make a person nigh-invulnerable. Typical factions that populate the Fallout world are the militia group Brotherhood of Steel, the illuminati esque Institute, and the authoritarian Enclave. But it’s not just factions the player encountered. Raiders, Super Mutants, Radscorpions and so much more inhabit the world. All of these elements are bound to make it into the TV series, if slightly altered to meet a TV format. It’s not known if the Fallout series will take place in the same timeline as the video games, or opt for making a new one like the Halo series. One aspect that Fallout is bound to include is war. And, no matter what medium the audience is consuming the content, war never changes.
The show has yet to have a release date announced, meaning audiences could be waiting a significant amount of time to revisit The Wasteland on Amazon Prime.
