The ‘Fallout’ TV programme is “almost like ‘Fallout 5”, showrunner Jonathan Nolan has said.
The Fallout TV programme is 'almost like ‘Fallout 5', showrunner Jonathan Nolan has said
According to the 47-year-old producer, his pitch for the Prime Video show, where he suggested the programme would tell an original story in the franchise that would be part of what Bethesda Studios had created with their games, was what got the team “most excited” for the project.
In an interview with Total Film, Jonathan said: "From the first conversation with (Bethesda boss) Todd Howard, we were most excited about an original story.
“‘Fallout', in my career, is closest to the work we did in adapting ‘Batman’, where there's so much storytelling in the ‘Batman’ universe that there is no canonical version of it, so you're free to invent your own.
"Each of the (‘Fallout’) games is a discrete story – different city, distinct protagonist – within the same mythology. Our series sits in relation to the games as the games sit in relation to each other.
"It's almost like we're ‘Fallout 5’. I don't want to sound presumptuous, but it's just a non-interactive version of it, right?”
The show stars Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins and Aaron Clifton Moten in a story where a group of survivors attempt to make their way in a harsh post-apocalyptic world.
Jonathan admitted it “was a challenge” to balance all of the deep themes of war and human nature in the show.
He told ScreenRant: “I think one of the things that drew us to it is that the games are very ambitious and encompass all those things and more. It's one of the things that a game can do, it's one of the challenges of the adaptation. You can play the ‘Fallout’ games for hundreds of hours, and they can be all things to all people. We don't have that choice for the series.
“But I love the idea that you could try to bite off the entire history of human discontent — the tribalism, and all of the behaviors, both positive and negative — and focus it on this idea of what happens when it's all gone.
“We look at the moment now, and it's hard and uncomfortable to think about the way the world is right now. But this is what's so great about speculative fiction; you get a chance to look at it from a slightly more comfortable remove.
“We're going to look at what happens when the world is really over, and get a chance to think about some of these things from that perspective.”