Earlier this year, Prime Video debuts the first season of Fallout, a new science fiction show based on the long-running video game series from Bethesda Softworks. Fallout was one of the rare game adaptations to break into the mainstream, resonating with gamer fans as well as new viewers who enjoyed its quirky take on the post-apocalypse. Amazon was quick to renew it for a second season, which is currently filming in Lost Angeles, California.
The first season of Fallout had a split narrative: on the one hand, we saw characters like Lucy (Ella Purnell) and the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) roam the Wasteland, contending with mutated creatures, raiders, radiation and other dangers. On the other, we saw the Ghoul's past, back when he was an actor named Cooper Howard in the days before the bombs dropped. Those two storylines wove together in some shocking ways by the end of the season, but they still left some questions unanswered.
The past is something that Fallout will dig deeper into in its second season, according to executive producer Jonathan Nolan. Nolan appeared at this year's Paley International Summit, which was attended by Inverse. The outlet was particularly curious about whether we'd see the rest of the Ghoul's backstory — including what happened to his family. Nolan is a long-time fan of the Fallout video games, and is acutely aware that these sorts of flashbacks are one thing his show can do that a game can't, at least not as easily.
“For the most part, in games, it’s a little harder grammatically to flashback, right?" Nolan said. "Some games can do it very well. There are a couple of memorable flashbacks in Call of Duty and other franchises. But for the most part, you kind of lock the user into that first-person point of view across both space and time.”
"In a show, you can flashback and you can explore that world beforehand. It’s one of the things I love the most about Season 1 and we will be doing more of that in Season 2."
Why was there no new Fallout game to go with the TV show?
The conversation also addressed a lingering question many fans had after Fallout released: why was there no new Fallout game to go along with it? Bethesda Softworks has done an incredible job with the series, and it seemed like a missed opportunity to not bring fans back to the Wasteland in game form when there was new attention on the franchise thanks to the TV show.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer addressed this question. Spencer doesn't have a lot of hands-on control over Amazon's show, and reiterated that Bethesda game director Todd Howard worked more closely with Nolan on the production to make sure everything aligned with the Fallout video games. But Spencer does oversee a lot of high-level stuff at Microsoft Gaming, which meant he had some insight into why we didn't get a new Fallout game this year. Apparently, it's because Bethesda and Microsoft are playing the long game. “We didn't have a new game lined up for the launch,” he said. “I actually think that gave us some creative liberty that wouldn't have had if we tried to coordinate production of two very different creative processes to land at the same time.”
While there was no new Fallout game this year, Spencer did point out that lots of fans were able to dive right in on live-service Fallout games like Fallout 76 and the mobile game Fallout Shelter. The way he sees it, it's better not to rush a game out just to cash in on hype at the expense of quality. “The play is much more long term than trying to drive some gift buying,” he said.
With another season of Fallout on the way, we'll be able to spend more time in the Wasteland whether there's a new game around the pike or not. Who knows, maybe by the time the show hits its third or fourth season, we'll finally get that new Fallout video game to tie it all together.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.