Stills of Amazon’s Fallout show have been officially revealed and it looks like an incredibly faithful use of the game’s source material. While this won’t be a proper adaptation of the Bethesda games, Todd Howard did confirm that the show will be part of the game’s canon.
During an extensive preview from Vanity Fair, Howard confirmed that the show will be part of the official series canon. Apparently, Bethesda was very hands-on with the script, making sure that the storyline would make sense within the Fallout canon.
“We view what’s happening in the show as canon,” says Howard. “That’s what’s great, when someone else looks at your work and then translates it in some fashion.”
Interestingly, Howard also said that he didn’t want the Fallout show to be a direct adaptation of Fallout 3 or any other game. Howard feels that the games have already told their stories pretty well, so adapting them into a different medium didn’t interest the Bethesda boss.
“That was the other thing—a lot of pitches were, you know, ‘This is the movie of Fallout 3…’ I was like, ‘Yeah, we told that story.’ I don’t have a lot of interest seeing those translated,” Howard said. “I was interested in someone telling a unique Fallout story. Treat it like a game. It gives the creators of the series their own playground to play in.”
Making a show that directly impacts the Fallout canon is a pretty bold choice from Bethesda, which should make Amazon’s interpretation even more interesting. Considering how faithful the show looks thus far, this could be another hit video game adaptation that can rival HBO’s The Last of Us.
Video game adaptations are a hot ticket in Hollywood these days. Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Netflix’s Castlevania anime, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie have all been certified hits. It wasn’t that long ago when the Paul W. S. Anderson Resident Evil movies begrudgingly had the title for best video game adaptations because everything else was worse.
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Fallout will debut on Amazon Prime next year, on April 12, 2024.