Fans of the Fallout franchise with an eye on Amazon Prime’s upcoming TV series have thus far dug up information about only the cast, the setting, and the fact that it won’t retell existing game stories. But now those fans are getting even more granular details thanks to a newly published first look piece on the show, which is due to premiere on April 12th, 2024.
The Vanity Fair article speaks with series co-creator Johnathan Nolan and Bethesda Softworks’ Todd Howard about the series’ main players, including the naive vault dweller Lucy, the wannabe Brotherhood soldier Maximus, and a villainous bounty hunter known as The Ghoul. Along the way, Nolan talks about how the series tries to challenge Lucy’s conceptions of morality and showcase the world’s concept of haves and have-nots, and Howard discusses his desire to make sure the series fits into the wider Fallout canon without rehashing existing game narratives, while photos from the set and the series are sprinkled throughout.
There are also multiple points where Nolan talks about making sure to hit the “mordant comedy” tone of the Fallout franchise, with the smirking Vault Boy iconography and its general ignorance of the harsh realities of a wasteland as something of a north star. “It’s a dark world in many ways. But the games were fun to play, fun to explore, and I think that was a mandate for us: to make sure that it was enjoyable to spend time in this universe,” says Nolan.
