Online Series: Fallout (Amazon, April 10, 2024)

[Osprey]

The worldwide best-selling game franchise Fallout is headed to television via Prime Video. Following months of dealmaking, Amazon Studios has licensed the rights to the games for Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy to develop a TV adaptation, which has received a series commitment.

‘Fallout’ Television Series Based On Game Franchise In Works – Deadline

Update: Vanity Fair has an exclusive first look (thanks, Unholy Diver)...

‘Fallout’ First Look: This Is How the World Ends—With a Smiling Thumbs-Up

The globally popular video game has become an epic TV series from ‘Westworld’ creator Jonathan Nolan.

www.vanityfair.com

Update: Official trailer (thanks, Tuggy), which reveals that all episodes will be available on April 11th...


Update: Now it's coming out on the 10th. Credit to Cush for the tweet.

Click to read more...

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

I'm optimistic

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Could be awesome.

 

[saluki]

If they follow the plot of the first game (protagonist spends early life in an underground vault and is forced into the outside world to save his/her home) I think it could be very good if done right.

If its just a generic post apocalyptic soap opera..... I don't know.

 

[Mikeaveli]

I'm not expecting much. It's been a rough few years being a Fallout fan.

 

[Kcb12345]

Love seeing all the games turn into TV series'/movies. Just hope most or at least some of them turn out how we all want them to

 

[Cor]

This could be great. or awful

 

[Mickey Marner]

The problem with adapting FPS is their hollow protagonists, which doesn't make for great television.

 

[belair]

Games don't generally make great film. I'll be interested to see what the Deathclaws look like though.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

I think Fallout can translate fine because it doesnt have to follow story elements from the games, since the games are all different stories they can come up with their own. All they really need to do, from the game that is, is have a canon environment

 

[Osprey]

The problem with adapting FPS is their hollow protagonists, which doesn't make for great television.

Fallout is more of an RPG franchise than FPS, but I see your point, though I don't think that it's a problem here. From Kurosawa's samurai films to Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" character to The Mandalorian, having a very lightly defined protagonist has been proven to be mysterious and interesting if handled correctly. Take the Mandalorian, a character that we know almost nothing about at the start. We don't know his background, his allegiances, his name or even his face. All of those are revealed in time, and I think that most of us would agree that Season 1 made for good television largely because of that. If the writers could write an interesting character like that from scratch, surely Nolan and Joy can write an interesting vault dweller. This Fallout series will probably be a neo-Western, like The Mandalorian, so a shallow protagonist might actually fit it perfectly early on and the writers will have time to define him her and make him her more complex over the course of the series.

 

[tealhockey]

Could be awesome.

Yeah. I reinstalled New Vegas last month and I think those other older games could be awesome source material too. The setting is just interesting. Even 4 if done right could be watchable. 3 would be excellent.

 

[RandV]

I still have New Vegas on my backlog

I've never been the biggest Fallout fan but it should work just fine as a TV series, since it's a common enough genre and the story is vague enough that they can do whatever and it can still be both good TV and true to the brand. Basic plot: clean cut protagonist leaves safety of nuclear fallout vault into a post nuclear apocalyptic American wasteland. Works well enough for any medium, don't need a video game attached to it

 

[The Macho King]

I'm not expecting much. It's been a rough few years being a Fallout fan.

Been downhill since Fallout 2.

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

If you watch the Fallout themed independent short films that are littered about YouTube then you will see that there is a possibility of the adaptation being great. However, I only think that's the case if they can find a creative team that are actual fans of the game -- otherwise it will likely get the Disney Star Wars treatment and be another soulless cash grab.

EDIT: These were the best two of the ones I have seen:
Fallout: Nuka Break (2011) - IMDb
Fallout: Red Star (TV Series 2013– ) - IMDb

 

[Osprey]

If you watch the Fallout themed independent short films that are littered about YouTube then you will see that there is a possibility of the adaptation being great. However, I only think that's the case if they can find a creative team that are actual fans of the game -- otherwise it will likely get the Disney Star Wars treatment and be another soulless cash grab.

One of the articles that I read (it might've been the one that I linked) quoted Nolan or Joy as saying that they're both fans of the series. It wasn't mentioned which games they'd played, but it was definitely nice to hear that they seem to have a love for the universe.

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

One of the articles that I read (it might've been the one that I linked) quoted Nolan or Joy as saying that they're both fans of the series. It wasn't mentioned which games they'd played, but it was definitely nice to hear that they seem to have a love for the universe.

That's the part that worries me. Hollywood people are as fake as it gets, we know they "love" the material because they're being paid to make a show based on it. Fallout has some pretty deep lore, you can play hundreds or thousands of hours and still not 'get' everything (esp since Bethesda's writing has gotten sloppier and introduced some major plot holes). I doubt successful Hollywood creators have enough free time to binge game like the rest of us.

Even so, given what amateurs have been able to do with the setting of New Vegas - I think a big budget project has definite potential to make something epic. Sincere fan of the series or not, Nolan is probably the best possible choice for the project with his affinity for 'darker' films. I am less familiar with Joy's work, but Westworld garners nothing but acclaim from all sides so they obviously make a good team.

Personally I am hoping for a New Vegas themed series, but anything would be fine by me as long as its well done and coherent. Even if they don't use any of the game locals and do a new backdrop I think it can still be successful.

 

[Osprey]

That's the part that worries me. Hollywood people are as fake as it gets, we know they "love" the material because they're being paid to make a show based on it. Fallout has some pretty deep lore, you can play hundreds or thousands of hours and still not 'get' everything (esp since Bethesda's writing has gotten sloppier and introduced some major plot holes). I doubt successful Hollywood creators have enough free time to binge game like the rest of us.

They're both in their early 40s, so they were in their early 20s when the first two Fallout games came out. They could've played those two as college students, when they had a lot more free time. Also, they've been married (to each other) since 2009 and have 2 kids that are presumably old enough to have played at least Fallout 4, so they might've played that with them. Also, Steven Spielberg and Robin Williams were big gamers well after they had successful careers. I definitely think that it's possible that Nolan and Joy have played enough of the Fallout series to have a good grasp of it.

 

[Hasbro]

If you watch the Fallout themed independent short films that are littered about YouTube then you will see that there is a possibility of the adaptation being great. However, I only think that's the case if they can find a creative team that are actual fans of the game -- otherwise it will likely get the Disney Star Wars treatment and be another soulless cash grab.

EDIT: These were the best two of the ones I have seen:
Fallout: Nuka Break (2011) - IMDb
Fallout: Red Star (TV Series 2013– ) - IMDb

Hopefully they'll do as well as they did adapting The Boys.

I'm sure they'll try an unused setting as opposed to New Vegas or anything. That way there can be a game tie in.

Ron Perlman and Michael Dorn would be nice too.

 

[NyQuil]

I played the original Fallout Beta all the way to Fallout 4 (haven't tried the online version which apparently is much improved from release).

Unlike a lot of the purists, I think there's a lot to like from all of the games.

Sure, the first two games established the setting and environment and infused it with a fair amount of choice and humour, but the later ones by Bethesda (and Obsidian) really allowed to player to experience the horror of that world from a first-person perspective.

I liked New Vegas but it's the silliest of the settings and I think it's the most unlikely to be adapted to screen. Roman legionaries and Brat Pack impersonators and robot police officers?

Knowing Nolan and Joy, the real intriguing aspects of the game that lured them in, are:
-the Vault Dweller living in a civilized setting and then being unceremoniously banished into anarchy for the good of the community (and then not being allowed back in)
-the insidious conspiracy behind the design and development of the Vaults
-the machinations of the Enclave (season 2?).
-shock of adjusting to a much more violent and transactional world

They like to keep their cards pretty close to the chest and infuse their work with a lot of twists.

Ironically, a lot of these foundational twists will already be known by the gamer community and inevitably spoiled so I suspect they'll try for a "loose" adaptation.

The original "water chip" type quest offers the best introduction and the easiest approach to establishing the world of the show IMO. The setting doesn't really matter.

 

[Osprey]

The original "water chip" type quest offers the best introduction and the easiest approach to establishing the world of the show IMO. The setting doesn't really matter.

I agree and this is how I'm hoping that the series starts out. It would be a great homage to the first game and, besides, is just a natural starting point... so natural, in fact, that Fallout 2 had a suspiciously similar premise ("go out and get a GECK" instead of "go out and get a water chip"). As you suggested, it wouldn't make sense to make that the whole first season, since the twist is already known, but they could maybe have the vault dweller find and return to the vault with the object by the 4th or 5th episode and then have the second half of the season be whatever unique story that they dream up.

For those who haven't played the original Fallout (and probably won't because it's a PC-only game), the premise is that a lone man is sent out of the vault (that generations have lived and died inside) and into the nuclear wasteland to find a water chip to replace their failing one before their water supplies run out. My favorite thing about the narrative is what happens when he returns:

Spoiler

He's met at the entrance and required to hand over the water chip, but is told that they can't allow him back in because he'd be treated as a hero and might give others ideas about leaving the vault, so he's permanently banished to the wasteland. It would be a great way to start a TV series, especially because it neatly solves the inherent problem of why a person would continue to live in a very dangerous wasteland instead of a safe and cozy vault. The TV series writers will have to address somehow, so they might as well just copy the solution from the game series, IMO.

 

[Blender]

I liked New Vegas but it's the silliest of the settings and I think it's the most unlikely to be adapted to screen. Roman legionaries and Brat Pack impersonators and robot police officers?

I actually don't think these things are that silly, aside from maybe the robot police but other games have pre-war protectrons that you can find. History is full of examples of societies trying to imitate past civilizations that they perceive as great but typically don't even have a full picture of what the culture and institutions were so it ends up being a messy and incomplete imitation. In a post nuclear holocaust world, I would fully expect groups to develop a culture based off of an aspect of pre-war culture since they live in the ruins of that civilization. So for example you have The Kings in New Vegas who all imitate the Elvis character because The King discovered a bunch of Elvis stuff in New Vegas and other people started following him as a leader and also embraced that culture.

It may seem silly because they are corny imitations of cultural references from the past, but even our own society has many of those.

 

[NyQuil]

It may seem silly because they are corny imitations of cultural references from the past, but even our own society has many of those.

Sure, but I don't see it as something Nolan and Joy would go for.

It's already been done with Escape from New York.

 

[NyQuil]

As you suggested, it wouldn't make sense to make that the whole first season, since the twist is already known, but they could maybe have the vault dweller find and return to the vault with the object by the 4th or 5th episode and then have the second half of the season be whatever unique story that they dream up.

Well, with Game of Thrones, they just adapted it anyway and people who weren't familiar with the books were either spoiled or they weren't.

It's really the Vaults themselves that present the most intriguing possibility regarding social experimentation on such a massive scale.

I can't imagine they would adapt the story verbatim, so as you say, they may pick and choose plot elements of interest or just take the world itself and make up a completely new narrative.

I'll admit that the start of Fallout 4 might be the best beginning of any Fallout game.

 

[Blender]

Well, with Game of Thrones, they just adapted it anyway and people who weren't familiar with the books were either spoiled or they weren't.

It's really the Vaults themselves that present the most intriguing possibility regarding social experimentation on such a massive scale.

I can't imagine they would adapt the story verbatim, so as you say, they may pick and choose plot elements of interest or just take the world itself and make up a completely new narrative.

I'll admit that the start of Fallout 4 might be the best beginning of any Fallout game.

I even really like the setting and the factions of Fallout 4. The execution of the story around them just leaves something to be desired. There are also interesting secondary factions like the Atom Cats who had their content just cut for time so they could make the release date.