Prime Video's highly anticipated Fallout series, an adaptation of Bethesda's beloved video game franchise, has debuted its official trailer. And based solely on the trailer itself, it looks like a faithful adaptation of the source material, complete with all of the expansive world building and dark humor we've come to love from the Fallout games.
Although it’s set in the world of Fallout, the television series features a new story that builds on the foundation of 25 years worth of creativity and world-building from the video games.
“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 it really is, the show is built on like 25 years of creativity and thinking and building,” series co-creator and showrunner Graham Wagner explained during a virtual press conference. “And we sort of thought the best thing to do is to continue that, versus 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. And yeah, we kind of felt like we ought to take a swing at trying to build a new piece on top of all of that.”
Despite a new story, though, many of the themes of Fallout are present in the series, and even in the trailer.
Fellow co-creator and showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet added: “Graham is a citizen of Canada. I'm a dual citizen of the US and New Zealand, and we often talk about how those care countries that are sort of celebrated as these wonderful, peaceful utopias, and "What if everyone was like there," and the reality is not everywhere is like those countries. 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? They would be the same. So, like, we saw the vaults as basically a mirror to that, right? 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?”
The Fallout series is set 200 years after the apocalypse and follows one particular Vault Dweller named Lucy (Ella Purnell). Brimming with “optimism and all-American can-do spirit,” Lucy’s “peaceful and idealistic nature is tested when she is forced to the surface to rescue her father.”
The trailer not only sets up Lucy’s adventure into the post-apocalyptic wasteland, but also teases some of the interesting characters she’ll meet along the way, including Walten Goggins “The Ghoul,” a morally ambiguous bounty hunter who holds within him a 200-year history of the post-nuclear world, and Aaron Moten’s Maximus, a young soldier in the militaristic faction called Brotherhood of Steel.
Anyone who has played the Fallout games knows that despite the humor on the surface, there are very dark undertones. This tone — a blend of action and comedy and weirdness — is part of what sets Fallout apart from other series, and it’s a big reason why executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan took on the project.
“I think you also have a moment that we're in right now in which the world, you know, it seems to be evermore frightening and dour. And so 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. You know, 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.”
Prime Video’s Fallout series is set to make its debut on the streaming service on April 11, 2024, one day earlier than previously announced. All eight episodes in the season will premiere at once.