We now have our very first glimpse of the Fallout TV series, with Amazon Prime Video sharing an image from the show to tie in with Fallout’s 25th anniversary. As you might expect, it’s a single image that gives away very little, leaning into some of the iconic visual stylings from the popular video game series.
Specifically, it shows the giant door to Vault 33 opening with three vault dwellers looking on as someone either leaves the vault for the first time, or has just arrived. We’d bet it’s the former.
It’s a moment that will be familiar from every Fallout video game, with each entry starting at a point where the player character is forced to leave their subterranean home and step out into the unknown of the 50s-inspired post-apocalyptic United States of America. While the first two games were isometric affairs, Bethesda’s Fallout 3 and beyond jumped to full 3D graphics, rendering this vault-opening sequence with great style.
Amazon and production company Kilter Films have nailed the aesthetic for this, from the giant cog-shaped bank vault door, to the blue and yellow jumpsuits with the vault’s numbering on the back, and if you squint or zoom in, you’ll spot what looks like a Pip-Boy wrist-mounted computer on the silhouette in the brightly lit vault entrance. There’s also hints of conflict here, with someone dead or unconscious to the left, only visible by their legs sticking out from behind some railing.
Kilter Films are handling the show with Jonathan Nolan directing the first episode – you may recognise him as being one of the co-creators of HBO’s Westworld, or spot that he shares a surname with his brother Christopher Nolan.
“Fallout is one of the greatest game series of all time,” said Nolan back for the show’s 2020 announcement. “Each chapter of this insanely imaginative story has cost us countless hours we could have spent with family and friends. So we’re incredibly excited to partner with Todd Howard and the rest of the brilliant lunatics at Bethesda to bring this massive, subversive, and darkly funny universe to life with Amazon Studios.”
Bethesda’s Todd Howard (who will serve as an Executive Producer on the show) said, “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.”
This is the latest in a string of attempts by video game companies to translate their franchises to film and TV series. The first attempt was back in 2000 when Interplay Films partnered with Dark Horse and they got as far as having treatment written. The project was eventually abandoned but you can read the entire treatment here. Amazon’s effort, coming amidst the big-budget TV adaptation landgrab we’re currently seeing, has managed to get much further.
Source: Twitter
TrannosaurusBex
“Each chapter of this insanely imaginative story has cost us countless hours we could have spent with family and friends.”
I’m not quite sure of the necessity of this statement. Any job costs us time with friends or family but we do them because we get paid. They’re not doing this for free, right? ??♀️
I’ll have to keep an eye on this one. I’ve been running out of stuff to watch on Netflix so will pick up a free Prime trial once this is all out and binge it.
MrYd
I hadn’t paid any attention to this at all, and now you’re telling me Jonathan Nolan is doing it? *runs of to check* And his wife, Lisa Joy, too?
Westworld was (is? Depends on if it gets the final 5th series it needs) a lot of fun, some seasons better than others. And they’ve also got The Peripheral on Amazon that just started, to exactly the mixed reviews you want. (Ok, they’re only executive producers there, but it feels like one of their things as much as it does William Gibson whose book it’s based on).
Plus he was responsible for Person of Interest, which I’m sure not enough people ever saw.
I’m suddenly interested in this Fallout series now.