Fallout being developed for TV by Westworld creators

Posted on July 3, 2020

In a world where video games are rapidly being adapted into scripts, it’s no surprise that Fallout is about to receive a TV adaptation.

Amazon Studios has bought the rights to greenlight Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy to forward the project. Albert Cheng, the Co-Head of the Amazon studios Head of Television made this statement: “Fallout is an iconic global franchise, with legions of fans worldwide and a rich, deeply compelling storyline that powers it. And Jonah and Lisa are the perfect storytellers to bring this series to life. We’re thrilled to join with Bethesda to bring Fallout to television.”

If you haven’t heard of Nolan and Joy you probably have heard of their most famous project, Westworld. The dystopian science-fiction Western was produced by HBO and first aired in 2016. It was based on the 1973 movie of the same name. In the world of Westworld humans are able to pay to enter a Western theme park where its inhabitants are all robots. These robots however are extremely life-like and the patrons can do what they please to them without consequences. This freedom obviously tests the morals of patrons who sometimes use the park as a “free pass” away from the moral obligations they have in the real world.

A lot of similar themes run through the Fallout series. Mainly, how do humans react when they are in a new environment devoid of morality? The original game was released in 1997 and was set in 2161. It saw the protagonist, referred to as the Vault Dweller, trying to survive and rebuild their underground vault, Vault 13. It’s reception on release was overwhelmingly positive due to its dark humor, intelligence and character development.

It wasn’t until Fallout 3 that Bethesda bought the rights from the original publishers, Interplay Productions. Todd Howard, the director of the series since the third installment has said of the TV adaptation “Over the last decade, we looked at many ways to bring Fallout to the screen. But it was clear from the moment I first spoke with Jonah and Lisa a few years ago, that they and the team at Kilter were the ones to do it right. We’re enormous fans of their work and couldn’t be more excited to work with them and Amazon Studios.”

Kilter Films, Joy and Nolan’s production company, released a press statement describing how “excited” they are to “partner with Todd Howard and the rest of the brilliant lunatics at Bethesda.” The statement also mentions that they are fans of the game “Each chapter of this insanely imaginative story has cost us countless hours we could have spent with family and friends.”

There has been no announcement of when the show will premiere, but it will be an Amazon Prime TV exclusive. We will keep you up to date on all the news around this project, so make sure to keep an eye on Checkpoint Gaming!