Arriving on Prime Video on December 17 is the second season of ‘Fallout’ (one episode will release weekly), the wild and chaotic adaptation of the popular game title.
‘Fallout’ proved to be a hit when it premiered in April last year, and now here comes the next chapter. Can the show continue to bottle the same level of chaotic dystopia, wild dark humor and a surprising level of heart?
On the evidence of the six episodes (of eight total) provided to press to review, the answer is a mixed yes.
Showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, plus the likes of creative partners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, keep up a similar level of madness as Lucy (Ella Purnell) and the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) continue their journey through the wasteland.
The show remains an entertaining watch, though the second season still suffers from some of the issues of the first –– when the narrative focus switches from the main duo (or flashbacks to the Ghoul’s past life as movie star Cooper Howard, wrapped up in the events that led to the dystopian wasteland) –– the interest level does tend to dip.
And that’s despite fun guest turns from the likes of Kumail Nanjiani and someone who has a long ling with voice work in the games that we won’t spoil here.
Visually, the show has lost none of its blend of steampunk/‘Mad Max’-esque charm, and the production values remain high.
Purnell and Goggins continue to be the standouts of the show, the joint beating heart. Some of the new communities they meet along the way certainly entertain and Kyle MacLachlan’s Hank is also great value, experimenting on the poor schlubs at the Vault-Tec building he heads to in Vegas.
On the villainous front (not that there are strict black-and-white sides in this world), Justin Theroux is enjoyably slimy as Robert House, an iconic manipulator from the game.
‘Fallout’s blend of sly satire, raucous action (the series appears to be looking to give Prime Video stablemate ‘The Boys’ a run for its money in terms of heads exploded or otherwise damaged), continues, even if some elements feel repetitive and the storyline’s interest level dips away from the main duo.
The new season picks up in the aftermath of Season One’s epic finale and take audiences along for a journey through the wasteland of the Mojave to the post-apocalyptic city of New Vegas.
Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, ‘Fallout’ is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. Two hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of sitting down in-person with Walton Goggins to talk about his work on the second season of ‘Fallout’, how The Ghoul has changed since season one, what excited the actor about season 2, and if he knows Cooper Howard’s full backstory or if he likes learning about it with the audience.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Goggins, Aaron Moten, Moisés Arias, and series creator Geneva Robertson-Dworet.
MF: To begin with, how has The Ghoul changed since season one and what you were most excited about exploring with the character this season?
Walton Goggins: We pick up where we left off in season one with the Ghoul and with Cooper Howard. Season one begins on this post-apocalyptic road trip across the Mojave Desert heading to New Vegas. He’s traveling with Lucy. He’s able to see her as a human being for the first time. This is the first time he’s been around a person for any length of time and a very long time. She has a different point of view than mine. She’s an optimist. I’m a nihilist. On the other side of this, one of them will win out. Either she’ll become more like me, or I’ll become more like her. The thing that was so challenging that I found myself being resistant to was being vulnerable. It was like the inverse of what I usually get to experience. So that was interesting. You dovetail that in with Cooper Howard, and picking up with him finding out that his wife is a principal architect for the ending of the world, and him realizing that the rug was pulled out from underneath him and the world that he thought existed doesn’t exist and he is living in a world of chaos, and he has no control over it. We get to spend so much more time with Cooper this year, so you really get to see it from his point of view and how that informs The Ghoul. You understand him more predicated on Cooper’s experience.
MF: Finally, how much of Cooper Howards’ backstory do you know at this point? Did the writers tell you his entire history, or do you learn more about the character episode to episode like the audience does?
WG: No, I think it’s changing. I mean, I have a direct pipeline to obviously the writers and to Jonah, and I’ve been invited to sit at the table and to collaborate with shows and movies for a long time now, so I get that extension, that courtesy, if you will. So, we do have those conversations and what that means, what could it mean? Then we’ll have those talks and then it might be what we talked about, or it might be something radically different. But we all are trying to go in the same direction and say something because it’s through Cooper Howard that you experience the world before the bombs dropped. The Ghoul is unique in this world and that all the other factions want to have the world look like they want it to look. The Ghoul, he wants nothing from the world. He just wants to find his family. That’s all.
The second season continues the story set in the wasteland of post-nuclear America and will introduce New Vegas, a major location from the video game ‘Fallout: New Vegas’.
Macaulay Culkin in ‘Party Monster’. Photo: Strand Releasing.
Preview:
Macaulay Culkin is joining ‘Fallout’ Season 2.
Prime Video’s adaptation of the video game series saw success when it launched this year.
The post-apocalyptic story will continue.
Prime Video found itself with a winner on its hands –– at least critically, but according to parent company Amazon, also in terms of viewership –– this past April, via ‘Fallout,’ the quirky, post-apocalyptic thriller series drawn from Bethesda Game Studios’ wildly popular set of video games.
It debuted as one of Prime Video’s Top 3 most watched titles and earned 16 Emmy nominations for its first season, including Outstanding Drama Series.
According to Deadline, Season 2 will see ‘Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin joining them, his role mostly a mystery but apparently someone who is a crazy genius. Which seems fitting for the mad world in which ‘Fallout’ takes place.
‘Fallout’ is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have.
Two-hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.
Season 2 promises to deliver more of the madness, mutants and mysteries audiences came to enjoy from the first.
Purnell plays Lucy, an optimistic Vault Dweller with an all-American, can-do spirit. Her peaceful and idealistic nature is tested when people harm her loved ones.
Aaron Moten stars as Maximus, A young soldier who hides his tragic past as he serves in a militaristic faction called Brotherhood of Steel. He believes in the nobility of the Brotherhood’s mission to bring law and order to the Wasteland — and will do anything to further their goals… until he learns some harsh truths.
Goggins steals scenes as The Ghoul. The Ghoul survives the Wasteland as a bounty hunter. He is pragmatic, ruthless, and hides a mysterious past.
MacLachlan is Hank, the Overseer of Vault 33 and Lucy’s father. He is eager to change the world for the better –– but has turned out to be not so positive…
When will Season 2 be on screens?
Given that it’s only now started shooting, we’re expecting to wait a while for this one. Hopefully it’ll be before the end of 2025.
Launching on Prime Video with all eight episodes on Thursday April 11th, ‘Fallout’ manages the tough ask of bringing a complex and sprawling video game to life in a way that will feel familiar to fans of the game and its darkly humorous style while also spinning its own tale set in that universe.
Continuing the trend for successful video game adaptations, the new show is a wild, freewheeling and well-acted ride through a landscape that feels familiar and yet has plenty of invention to spare.
With their ambitious adaptation of ‘Westworld’, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy proved they have what it takes to bring a popular story to life in a new way. And even if that series ultimately ended up trying itself up in intellectual knots, it had a lot to say about technology, humanity and society whilst presenting some unique visions and concepts.
‘Fallout’, which never pretends to explore such high-minded ideals, is its own way smart, satirical and entertaining while also being far wilder and out there in execution. And that’s thanks primarily to show co-creators and overseers Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, who really let loose when it comes to the oddball characters and creatures populating this story.
If you’re an established fan of Tim Cain’s games, then you’ll find plenty to enjoy here. And if not, you won’t be turned off.
Perhaps the smartest move that Robertson-Dworet and Wagner made is to set this TV iteration of ‘Fallout’ in its own story, borrowing concepts and some key characters from the game, but introducing us to an out-there scorched Earth primarily through the eyes of devout and plucky Vault Dweller Lucy (Ella Purnell). As with the game, we experience the craziness that lurks outside the protective doors initially in contained form when her Vault is attacked, and her father (Kyle McLachlan’s Hank) kidnapped.
It makes for a handy, organic way to provide the necessary exposition as Lucy makes her way through this terrifying, beautifully-designed world, meeting dangerous people and unusual creatures created in the centuries since America was set aflame in nuclear combat.
Lucy’s story in particular works well as a narrative focal point, but there’s also some welcome depth to the antagonist of the piece, the Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins. Looking for all the world like a cousin to Marvel’s Red Skull, he’s also a combo of grizzled gunslinger and bitter warrior. And the show digs further into his backstory in ways that we won’t spoil here.
Which is not to say Nolan in particular doesn’t have a hand in the show –– he directs the first three episodes, dictating the tone and style of the show, and here feels like a director unrestrained after the statelier, brain-fodder feel of ‘Westworld’ (for all that show’s bursts of violence). He and the creative team have crafted a truly lived-in look to the ‘Fallout’ world, with distinctive characters and intriguing plot turns.
Purnell is more than able to carry the show as Lucy, who has her preconceived notions of how the world should work quickly shattered when she ventures beyond the Vault following its breaching by raiders. It’s through her eyes that we see most of the story, and Purnell brings plenty of charisma to the part, along with a strength and steel that Lucy needs to survive.
Yet its Goggins who has the most to do here –– he’s the first character we meet in the time before the nuclear attack, his long-lived nature is explored and explained, and there are flashbacks to the man he was back then. It’s a fully-rounded role and one that the experienced character fills with gusto and his usual scuffed charm. There’s a sly humor to his present-day demeanor and some real pathos in his past.
If there is a weak link among the show’s stories, it’s perhaps in Aaron Moten’s Maximus, the young, brutalized member of the Brotherhood of Steel, an armed force dedicated to unearthing the former world one item at a time and enforcing their own mechanized brand of rough justice on the current one. While the attitude of the Brotherhood and his own rebellious reaction to it offers some fun, it’s perhaps a little more straightforward than some of the other elements and doesn’t work as well.
Which is no fault of Moten, who contributes a likeable, conflicted performance in the role. Around them is an excellent cast of supporting characters, with Michael Emerson it’s best to experience for the first time on screen, so as not to diminish its entertainment factor. Suffice to say, it’s the sort of quirky performance in which he excels.
‘Fallout’ should serve as both a way into the story for those who’ve never played the game and a worthy extension of the world for those who have completed the various releases and have a Vault Boy Funko Pop giving them a thumbs-up from their desk.
We’ve seen any number of post-apocalyptic stories through the years, and if this borrows some common tropes and visuals, it has more than enough tweaks and humor to keep it feeling unique and often laugh out loud funny –– when it’s not being gruesome. But it’s always compelling and can stand proudly among the better adaptations of game content.
The show depicts the aftermath of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange in an alternate history where advances in nuclear technology after WWII led to the emergence of a retrofuturistic society and a subsequent resource war. The survivors took refuge in fallout bunkers known as Vaults, built to preserve humanity in the event of nuclear annihilation. Two centuries later, a young woman (Ella Purnell), a descendant of the original “Vault Dwellers” from one of many Vaults, leaves behind the only life she has ever known to venture out into the dangerously hostile and savage Wasteland of a devastated Los Angeles.
(L to R) Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten talk ‘Fallout.’
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten about their work on ‘Fallout’, their first reaction to the screenplay, their knowledge of the game, their characters, and the world that Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have created.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Purnell, Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Emerson, executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan, and executive producers and writers Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner.
Moviefone: To begin with, Ella, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and what were some of the aspects of your character that you were excited to explore on screen?
Ella Purnell: I remember it perfectly. I was sitting on the couch. I was ill, and every five pages I’d be like, “Wait, this is really cool.” I just kept going and kept going. I was absolutely blown away by the level of detail. I knew of the games, but I wasn’t familiar, I hadn’t played them at that point, so I wasn’t familiar with the tone. I got that from the script. I got the dark comedy, I got the balance of the humor with the heavy post-apocalyptic, and the fifties/sixties retro-futuristic style was so exciting to me. More than anything, it was the character. She, I just thought was so funny and direct, and I really loved her attitudes, which is partly a product of her upbringing and her environment, and partly just who she is. You know when you really want to watch a show that you should really try to be in the show.
MF: Aaron, how familiar were you with the game and what was your reaction to this incredible world that Jonathan Nolan and the writers have created?
Aaron Moten: I mean, I knew of ‘Fallout’, right? I was not of my friend group that got into playing ‘Fallout’ but I played other games at the time. Here’s this weird full circle moment where it’s like the world is telling me, “Hey, we’ll give you a chance now in real time to roam through these worlds.” I mean, it is incredibly detailed and it’s so dense, and that’s what makes it fun, especially as an actor to get to really feel like this is your playground for the day. It got so exciting where we would be looking at scripts and when we’d be talking on set about like, “Oh man, I can’t wait to see what they come up with for this setup. And where are we going to be for such and such scene?” It just was so thrilling, honestly, as an actor to get to live in this world.
MF: Ella, can you talk about Lucy’s journey and what she discovers about herself and the world around her after she leaves the vault?
EP: It’s a great question. What I like about Lucy is there’s so much more to her than what you see, and I think people will underestimate her, and I’m excited to show them what she’s capable of. She’s obviously incredibly naive and innocent. She grew up in a vault underground being drip-fed propaganda from a corporation her entire life. She’s the daughter of the overseer. She’s essentially the president’s daughter. She has a role and a duty and a belief that that is what she was bred and is going to do. I think people don’t know who they are sometimes until they’re put in a certain situation, a challenging situation. Only then do you really know what you’re made of. That for her is absolutely going to the Wasteland. I mean, she really goes through it. It’s tough for her, and she just has this bravery that emerges that I don’t think she even knew she had inside her. It comes from this inherent belief, and choosing to continue to believe that humans have inherent goodness inside them, no matter how evil and lawless they may appear to be on the Wasteland.
MF: Finally, Aaron, can you talk about Maximus’s role in the Brotherhood of Steel, and does he begin to question what he’s fighting for?
AM: Absolutely. I think, that’s one of these things that the characters have a lot of differences, between these three main characters, but they have similarities, and they have these touchstones of moments that they kind of separately share. I agree with until Maximus is put into certain situations, it’s a discovery of what do I really feel about something? I know that the Brotherhood is a harsh reality, and even being born and raised in the Wasteland would be a harsh reality. It’s a tough existence for Maximus and everything I think has been a bit of a struggle for him. So, survival being an important thing for all these characters, I think he’s trying to look out for himself at times but is he making a noble pursuit and it’s about rising-up, gaining power and fighting off his own devils because of that.
The show depicts the aftermath of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange in an alternate history where advances in nuclear technology after WWII led to the emergence of a retrofuturistic society and a subsequent resource war. The survivors took refuge in fallout bunkers known as Vaults, built to preserve humanity in the event of nuclear annihilation. Two centuries later, a young woman (Ella Purnell), a descendant of the original “Vault Dwellers” from one of many Vaults, leaves behind the only life she has ever known to venture out into the dangerously hostile and savage Wasteland of a devastated Los Angeles.
Prime Video has unveiled the first trailer for ‘Fallout,’ the long-awaited series based on the iconic post-apocalyptic video game franchise that first began publishing back in 1997, yielding four games in the main narrative and more than half a dozen spinoffs since then.
In the games, nuclear war has rendered the United States (and the world at large) into what’s called the Wasteland, with pockets of survivors living underground in highly protected shelters known as Vaults. The games are set further and further in the future each time out, with inhabitants of the Vaults venturing out into the Wasteland on various missions and encountering dangerous creatures (such as the artificially created bioweapons known as Deathclaws), mutants, and irradiated humans.
‘Fallout,’ the streaming series, takes much of this premise and the popular ‘Fallout 3’ game – which is set 200 years after the war – as its starting point. Ella Purnell stars as Lucy, a character created for the show, who ventures outside her Vault and learns the hellish nature of life on the surface. Along the way she meets Maximus (Aaron Moten), a member of the militaristic technology cult The Brotherhood of Steel, and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a mysterious figure with a connection to the past and the Vaults.
(L to R) Aaron Moten, Ella Purnell, Todd Howard, and Walter Goggin from ‘Fallout’ attend The Game Awards 2023 at the Peacock Theater on December 7, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Scott Kirkland/PictureGroup.
After years of rumored films and false starts, ‘Fallout’ comes to streaming thanks to husband-and-wife team Jonathan (Jonah) Nolan and Lisa Joy, whose previous sci-fi series was HBO’s ‘Westworld.’ Joining Nolan and Joy as executive producers and showrunners are Geneva Robertson-Dworet (‘Captain Marvel’), Graham Wagner (‘Portlandia’) and Todd Howard of Bethesda Game Studios, along with James Altman for Bethesda Softworks.
In conjunction with the arrival of the trailer, Prime Video held a virtual press conference featuring Nolan (who directed the first three episodes), Robertson-Dworet, Wagner, and Howard, along with Purnell, Moten, and surprise remote guest Walton Goggins.
Here are 10 things we learned at that press conference, edited for clarity and length.
Jonathan Nolan says that his obsession with ‘Fallout’ was so intense that, ironically enough, he spent more time early in his career playing the game than looking for writing opportunities.
Jonathan Nolan: I think it started, for me, with ‘Fallout 3,’ which devoured about a year of my life. You know, I was an aspiring young writer at that point. It almost derailed my entire career. It’s so ludicrously playable and fun. I mean, seriously, the games were just incredible. It’s such a rare thing and such an unbelievable thing — and I’ve gotten to do it twice in my career — to take something that you love and get a chance to play in that universe, to create your own version, I guess, of that universe. The first go-round for me was Batman (Nolan co-wrote ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ with his brother, Christopher Nolan), and this time with ‘Fallout,’ a series of games that I absolutely loved. About five years ago, Todd and I went and had lunch together — it was a bit of a fanning-out moment for me — and just started talking about the possibilities of how you could take this incredible universe… we came out of lunch with a handshake deal that we’re going to try to make this work.
Graham Wagner says that the show is a continuation of the mythology from the games but also a new story, not an adaptation of the existing games.
Graham Wagner: It’s set in the world of ‘Fallout,’ but it’s a new story that comes, sort of, after the events we’ve seen. So the show is really built on 25 years of creativity and thinking and building. We sort of thought the best thing to do is to continue that [rather than] retread it. Because that’s sort of what has worked with ‘Fallout’ over the years. It’s traded hands, it’s changed, it’s been altered, and it’s a living thing. We kind of felt like we ought to take a swing at trying to build a new piece on top of all of that.
3) What Canada Has to Do With A Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland
(L to R) Actors Walton Goggins, Ella Purnell, Co-Showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet, and Actor Aaron Moten attends ‘Fallout’ Cast and Creators Presentation at The Game Awards at Peacock Theater on December 07, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for Prime Video.
According to Geneva Robertson-Dworet, a big factor in the appeal of adapting ‘Fallout’ was the underlying themes of the story.
Geneva Robertson-Dworet: The themes of ‘Fallout’ are also what really drove us to want to adapt this with Jonah, and we were really especially drawn to the social commentary inherent to the idea of these Vaults. Graham is a citizen of Canada. I’m a dual citizen of the US and New Zealand, and we often talk about how those countries are sort of celebrated as these wonderful, peaceful utopias…But what would it mean if those countries were to open their borders and let everyone in, and everyone could have a better life? Well, they would change, right? We saw the Vaults as basically a mirror to that. This idea that, like, ‘What if we create a Vault that is very peaceful and wonderful?’ But what does it mean that not everyone gets to live there, and people suffer on the surface?
4) Why It Took Years to Bring ‘Fallout’ to the Screen
Todd Howard of Bethesda Game Studios says that the company was very deliberate in allowing ‘Fallout’ to be adapted to another medium.
Todd Howard: People would approach us over, I would say, a 10-year period after ‘Fallout 3’ came out, from 2009 on, to adapt ‘Fallout’ to film or television. We took a very cautious approach, and Jonah was somebody [who] I was such a fan of the movies he did and the TV he was doing, and I actually had someone reach out. And when I first talked to Jonah, I mean, honestly, it was like someone I had known for a long time: [he] obviously played the games a ton, and his approach, right from the get-go, was in sync with what I was thinking.
5) Why Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten Were Thrilled to Be Part of ‘Fallout’
Actor Ella Purnell attends ‘Fallout’ Cast and Creators Presentation at The Game Awards at Peacock Theater on December 07, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for Prime Video.
British actor Ella Purnell and ‘Emancipation’ star Aaron Moten described what made their characters so exciting to play.
Ella Purnell: Lucy is a Vault Dweller, and what excited me about playing her was that she is so innocent and naive and obviously very privileged as well. It was exciting for me to start in that place. She’s essentially a newborn baby. She hasn’t had any real-life experiences. All she knows is what she was taught and what she’s read in books that she has in the Vault. It’s limited. Then you put her in the Wasteland, and what happens? What happens with that? That’s a really exciting place for me to start in.
Actor Aaron Moten attends ‘Fallout’ Cast and Creators Presentation at The Game Awards at Peacock Theater on December 07, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for Prime Video.
Aaron Moten: I play Maximus. He’s part of the Brotherhood of Steel. I guess what excited me was a little bit of what Ella’s talking about — that starting place, and where you go from there. [He’s] a person who’s lived in the Wasteland for his entire life, and he has to have a certain type of moral ambiguity that is forced upon him, living in the world that he lives in. Where do you go from there? How do you hold onto what is your unique, pure self, how does that change, and how do you discover what it is that you want?
Not able to participate in the press conference, acclaimed actor Walton Goggins (‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’) beamed in with a pre-recorded message about his character. Alive since before the war and once known as Cooper Howard, he’s now a mutated bounty hunter called The Ghoul.
Walton Goggins: The Ghoul is, in some ways, the poet Virgil in ‘Dante’s Inferno.’ He’s the guide, if you will, through this irradiated hellscape where we find ourselves in this post-apocalyptic world. He is a bounty hunter, an iconic bounty hunter. He is pragmatic, he is ruthless, he has his own set of moral codes, and he has a wicked sense of humor — much like me [laughs]. No, he’s a very, very, very complicated guy, and to understand him, you have to understand the person that he was before the war. He had a name. His name was Cooper Howard, and he was a vastly different person than the ghoul that you’ve seen so far. Over the course of the show, through his experience back in the world before the nuclear fallout, you will understand how the world was, and he is the bridge between both these worlds.
7) The Level of Detail in ‘Fallout’ Is Off The Charts
Both executive producer Todd Howard and star Ella Purnell emphasize that there is an incredible amount of detail and world-building in the show, with Purnell adding that most of the show was done practically instead of digitally, as per the wishes of Jonathan Nolan.
Todd Howard: The authenticity they brought to it [is] obsessive. We like to say when we make the games that we obsess over every pixel. And Jonah and crew, they obsessed over every pixel [laughs] of every frame, just to make it authentic. The other thing, watching that trailer, the trick with ‘Fallout’ is it has so many different tones. It goes between the serious, the dramatic, and the action, and some humor and nostalgic music and dramatic music…it weaves those different things together in a very unique blend that only ‘Fallout’ can bring, and they’ve done just an awesome job.
Ella Purnell: This was so much fun, working on this show. Every shoot is hard, not every shoot is fun, and this one was just so fun for an actor. No two days were the same. Every prop, every costume, every location, every set was just bonkers. One of the joys of working with Jonah is he loves to do everything, as much as he can, for real. So you’re not working with that much green screen or dudes in green leotards. You get to really work with practicals, and you don’t have to imagine so much. It’s real and you can really do it.
Two completely different aspects of ‘Fallout’ – the physical protective suits known as power armor, worn by the Brotherhood of Steel, and the more elusive overall vibe of the show – are the two elements that Jonathan Nolan cites as difficult to pin down.
Jonathan Nolan: We talked a lot about the power armor. The tone was a big thing. I think the tone was maybe the most challenging and the most intimidating thing for me. But working with Geneva and Graham, you knew that we were going to be in a really good place with that incredibly ambitious story. On a technical level, the scope of the world and the power armor in particular was one of those things where you go, ‘Oh, how on earth are we going to do that?’ But we got there.
9) What Sets ‘Fallout’ Apart From a Million Other Shows
There are tons of shows out there now on many different platforms competing for our eyes, and quite a number of them are actually set in post-apocalyptic landscapes. But ‘Fallout,’ says its creators, is different.
Geneva Robertson-Dworet: It’s not just the incredible tone, which is, as people have talked about, this unbelievable blend of action and comedy and just weirdness. But I think it’s these incredibly prescient themes, factionalism being maybe the most obvious. When you play the game ‘Fallout,’ you go from settlement to settlement or from faction to faction. That was something we were really excited to manifest with our heroes.
Jonathan Nolan: I think you also have a moment that we’re in right now in which the world seems to be ever more frightening and dour. So [this is] an opportunity for us to work on a show that gets to look that in the eye, right, and we get to talk about the end of the world, but to do it with a sense of humor. I think, honestly, there’s a thread of optimism woven into the show as well, that I think for us, you know, is a bit of expiation to be able to work on this every day.
10) Pleasing ‘Fallout’ Fans is Not the First Priority
(L to R) Actors Aaron Moten, Ella Purnell, and Walton Goggins speak onstage during ‘Fallout’ Cast and Creators Presentation at The Game Awards at Peacock Theater on December 07, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for Prime Video.
Video game adaptations are notoriously hard to get right – the filmmakers often try (and fail) to walk a tightrope between servicing the fans of the game and attracting new viewers who couldn’t care less about the game. Jonathan Nolan doesn’t think that’s the right approach.
Jonathan Nolan: I don’t think you really can set out to please the fans of anything, or please anyone other than yourself. I think you have to come into this trying to make the show that you want to make, and trusting that as fans of the game, we would find the pieces that were essential to us about the games and try to do the best version of those that we can. I think it’s kind of a fool’s errand to try to figure out how to make people happy in that way. You’ve got to make yourself happy. And I’ve made myself very happy with the show.
(L to R) Actors Walton Goggins, Ella Purnell, and Aaron Moten attend with ‘Fallout’ Cast and Creators at The Game Awards at Peacock Theater on December 07, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for Prime Video.
What is the Plot of ‘Fallout’?
The show depicts the aftermath of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange in an alternate history where advances in nuclear technology after WWII led to the emergence of a retrofuturistic society and a subsequent resource war. The survivors took refuge in fallout bunkers known as Vaults, built to preserve humanity in the event of nuclear annihilation. Two centuries later, a young woman (Ella Purnell), a descendant of the original “Vault Dwellers” from one of many Vaults, leaves behind the only life she has ever known to venture out into the dangerously hostile and savage Wasteland of a devastated Los Angeles.
(L to R) Actors Aaron Moten, Ella Purnell, and Walton Goggins speak onstage during ‘Fallout’ Cast and Creators Presentation at The Game Awards at Peacock Theater on December 07, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for Prime Video.
Following the first images, the ‘Fallout’ trailer is online.
The series is set in a post-apocalyptic world of brutality and chaos.
Prime Video launches the show in April.
Prime Video is hoping that its ambitious adaptation of the ‘Fallout’ series of video games will be drawn into the current success trend of games turned into movies and shows.
Adapted from the massively popular video game ‘Fallout’ is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have.
Two-hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.
While this first look offers glimpses at iconic ‘Fallout’ elements such as the Vaults, airborne carriers the Vertibirds and Power Suits, it’s also focused on some of the characters, including:
Ella Purnell as Lucy, an optimistic Vault Dweller with an all-American, can-do spirit. Her peaceful and idealistic nature is tested when people harm her loved ones.
Aaron Moten as Maximus, A young soldier who hides his tragic past as he serves in a militaristic faction called Brotherhood of Steel. He believes in the nobility of the Brotherhood’s mission to bring law and order to the Wasteland — and will do anything to further their goals.
Walton Goggins as The Ghoul. The Ghoul survives the Wasteland as a bounty hunter. He is pragmatic, ruthless, and hides a mysterious past.
Kyle MacLachlan as Hank, the Overseer of Vault 33 and Lucy’s father. He is eager to change the world for the better.
Jonathan Nolan on the differences between the game and the show
’It’s a very different mode of storytelling. One of the things I’m most excited about is telling an ensemble story and coming at it from these three perspectives. It was, to me, kind a brilliant hack for how you present that role-playing game mechanic of the games, which is you, as that vault dweller, can be anyone. They can look like anyone and can make any choices they want, which is not a luxury you can afford the audience when you’re telling them a linear story. So, having three perspectives, having Ella’s character and Aaron’s character and Walton’s characters occupy these very different corners of the fallout universe gave us a chance to encompass some of the ambition of the games, not just in terms of world building, but in terms of morality and in terms of the gray area. We talked a lot about ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,’ which is one of my very favorite films, and so that was a great touchstone for us as we sort of embarked on the journey.”
When will ‘Fallout’ be on our TV screens?
Prime Video has announced that ‘Fallout’ will launch on April 12 next year.
The first images from the ‘Fallout’ TV adaptation have dropped.
It’s set in a post-apocalyptic world.
The show will hit Prime Video in April.
There seems to be no end to the current trend for video game adaptations, which makes sense given the success of recent titles such as ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ and ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ have shown.
Now here come Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy with a small screen version of popular title ‘Fallout’. Nolan and Joy are running the show alongside Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, and Nolan directs the first three episodes.
Adapted from the massively popular video game ‘Fallout’ is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have.
Two-hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.
While this first look offers glimpses at iconic ‘Fallout’ elements such as the Vaults, airborne carriers the Vertibirds and Power Suits, it’s also focused on some of the characters, including:
Ella Purnell as Lucy, an optimistic Vault Dweller with an all-American, can-do spirit. Her peaceful and idealistic nature is tested when people harm her loved ones.
Aaron Moten as Maximus, A young soldier who hides his tragic past as he serves in a militaristic faction called Brotherhood of Steel. He believes in the nobility of the Brotherhood’s mission to bring law and order to the Wasteland — and will do anything to further their goals.
There have been various incarnations of ‘Fallout’ across different platforms and formats, but if you’re a total newbie, will you still understand the show? Bethesda Game Studios (which currently producers the game) director and series executive producer Todd Howard said you can in a podcast interview last year:
“It’s not retelling a game story. It’s basically an area of the map. Let’s tell a story here that fits in the world that we have built, doesn’t break any of the rules, can reference things in the games, but isn’t a retelling of the games. [It] exists in the same world but is its own unique thing, so it adds to it. While also, people who haven’t played the games, who can’t experience how crazy cool ‘Fallout’ is, can watch the series.”
When will ‘Fallout’ be on our TV screens?
Prime Video has announced that ‘Fallout’ will launch on April 12th next year.
(L to R) Evan Rachel Wood and James Marsden in HBO’s ‘Westworld.’
‘Westworld’, which for four seasons has been delighting (and more often confounding) viewers with its complex, twisty storytelling and changing characters since it debuted in 2016, has been cancelled at HBO.
Based on the 1973 film by Michael Crichton (who would go on to employ a similar idea of attractions causing trouble in his novel ‘Jurassic Park‘), ‘Westworld’ –– initially, at least –– told the story of a sprawling Western-themed park where humans could interact with complicated artificial people. And by interact, it usually meant either sleep with or kill.
As the show went on, the canvas expanded to include different zones within the park with their own themes and the futuristic world outside of it, as the “hosts” –– the park’s creations –– broke out of their programming (and their restrictions) and began to plot a takeover of the human sphere.
An initial success –– its premiere drew the channel’s highest viewership since the debut of “True Detective” in 2014, it was initially buzzy, but its appeal began to wane slightly in later years, most notably after a big break in episodes due to the pandemic.
Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford in HBO’s ‘Westworld.’
Though HBO offered no official reason for the cancellation, there is already talk that it’s a combination of declining ratings (even without need of advertising revenue), with a precipitous drop between Seasons 3 and 4, and the hefty price tag for the show.
An effects heavy head-scratcher, it featured expansive visuals of futuristic cities, a big cast and lots of artificial beings to bring to life.
It’s no secret that HBO parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has been on a cost-cutting run of late, and while it still has big productions upcoming (such as ‘The Last of Us’), it has clearly decided that ‘Westworld’ was no longer worth producing.
“Over the past four seasons, Lisa and Jonah have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step,” HBO said in a statement. “We are tremendously grateful to them, along with their immensely talented cast, producers and crew, and all of our partners at Kilter Films, Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television. It’s been a thrill to join them on this journey.”
“Making ‘Westworld’ has been one of the highlights of our careers,” Nolan and Joy have remarked. “We are deeply grateful to our extraordinary cast and crew for creating these indelible characters and brilliant worlds. We’ve been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness –– both human and beyond –– in the brief window of time before our AI overlords forbid us from doing so.”
No shade there, then. Nolan and Joy, meanwhile are still at work on visions of the future –– they have a deal at Amazon, where they’re currently producing ‘The Peripheral’ and developing other projects.
Ed Harris as The Man in Black in HBO’s ‘Westworld.’
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Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson on ‘Live with Kelly and Ryan.’ Courtesy of YouTube.
Rapper Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson has quietly been building himself a successful Hollywood career. He’s had various acting roles but has found his real niche as a producer. And now he’s looking to join the DC movie universe, as his G-Unit Film & Television is producing an adaptation of Christopher Priest’s DC comic ‘Xerø’.
The story of the comic, created by Priest and artist ChrisCross, follows Trane Walker, a Black government assassin who weaponizes invisibility by disguising himself as a white man to blend anonymously into the exotic Casino Royale haunts of the international elite. Spanning the gulf between that and the disenfranchised city streets of East St. Louis, Illinois, Walker is a man living in two worlds but taking ownership of neither. ‘Xerø’ chronicles his moral awakening and the life-and-death perils it presents.
“There’s no one better than Christopher Priest to bring G-Unit Film & Television into the world of comic book superheroes,” says Jackson in a statement carried by Deadline. “Watch as we build Xerø into a franchise alongside Christopher and Color Farm Media. I can’t wait for the world to meet Trane Walker in an all-new way.”
“Xerø depicts a slow-moving car wreck at the intersection of race and class,” Priest says. “The commonality of struggle represented by the life experiences of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, G-Unit Film & Television, and Color Farm assure a broad depth of first-hand appreciation for that delicate balance. It’s exciting to be working together to create this new world.”
No writer or director is attached yet, though Jackson and co. are looking at this first live-action outing as the launching point for a series of movies and potentially more.
Jackson’s producing output includes the series ‘Power’, in which he also acted. He’s since shepherded a number of spin-offs and has a variety of other shows on the way.
Walton Goggins on HBO’s ‘Vice Principals.’
And while we’re talking adaptations, there is forward movement on Prime Video’s TV series based on video game franchise ‘Fallout’.
Walton Goggins, best known for TV’s ‘Justified’ and ‘The Righteous Gemstones,’ and movies including ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Ant Man & The Wasp’, is aboard to star in the show.
‘Fallout’ posits a world where the future envisioned by Americans in the late 1940s explodes upon itself through a nuclear war in 2077. Goggins’ character has yet to be revealed, though he’s reportedly playing a “ghoul”, a mutated human who experienced prolonged radiation exposure amid the Great War.
This series comes courtesy of ‘Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and their Kilter Films company. Nolan will direct the first episode, while ‘Captain Marvel’ writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet and ‘Silicon Valley’ veteran Graham Wagner are the showrunners.
‘Fallout’ has been an incredibly successful game series, while its mobile spin-off, ‘Fallout Shelter’, has been downloaded more than 170 million times. Which means there’s clearly an audience for this, even though adapting video games has proved notoriously tough.
This isn’t even the only series Nolan and Joy are working on – they also have an adaptation of William Gibson novel ‘The Peripheral’ in the works, along with another season of ‘Westworld’ due this year.
(L to R) Evan Rachel Wood and James Marsden in HBO’s ‘Westworld.’
