Few people dare to adapt a first-person video game, and Prime Video’s «Fallout» is just the latest (and long-awaited) example of this. At the same time, according to one of the series’ creators, Jonathan Nolan, it was easier to work with given the success of another post-apocalyptic game adaptation — «The Last of Us» by HBO.
When in an interview The Hollywood Reporter Nolan was asked if he was disappointed that «The Last of Us» came out first, and he replied:
«I was thrilled. When Todd Howard [the game developer] and I first talked about the adaptation, it wasn’t that the bar was low — it didn’t exist in the television space. It’s always nice to be the first, but when someone does something as good as «The Last of Us» — it becomes easier because suddenly everyone realizes that it’s possible».
For Jonathan Nolan himself, this is not the first «sci-fi rodeo» — the director, who is the brother of «Oppenheimer» creator Christopher Nolan, worked on the «Westworld» series for HBO, as well as «Peripherals» for Amazon. Lisa Joy, who worked with Nolan on «Westworld», has also joined «Fallout» as a second showrunner.
In an interview, Nolan notes that the creative team also drew a lot of inspiration from westerns for the series’ aesthetic.
«We talked a lot about Clint Eastwood’s classic The Good, the Bad, the Ugly», says Nolan. «I think our writers have created a sense of role-playing-though without the audience making the choices; it’s the characters making the choices».
The «Fallout» series tells the story of humanity’s survival in a post-apocalyptic future in 2296 — 219 years after the nuclear war. The plot is part of the canon of the game series, but tells an independent story built around three key characters: a young girl Lucy, a resident of «Vault 33», her father and Vault supervisor Hank, and mercenary goon Cooper Howard.
Ella Purnell («Yellowjackets»), Walton Goggins («Justified») and Kyle MacLachlan («Twin Peaks») play the main roles in the TV adaptation.
«Fallout» will be released on Prime Video in three days — April 11. All 8 episodes will debut simultaneously, and the first one will be available on Twitch the same day (here you can view the list of streamers) — so Amazon plans to attract more viewers to the full version.
Meanwhile, specialized publications published the first reviews of the series — for example, Insider Gaming notesThe series turned out to be quite violent, and the sexual scenes sometimes look inappropriate.
«I can already tell that the story is going to be bursting at the seams with offshoots and ramifications, and countless references have been made to potential plot points and «other areas of the Fallout universe, — journalist Grant Taylor-Hill writes.