Summary
Falloutis a video game series that spans hundreds of years, from its first game to its newest. It puts players in the shoes of (usually) a vault-dweller who leaves the safety of their vault for various reasons, only to discover how sheltered their life has been underground.Amazon’sFalloutTV seriesaims to follow the same formula, making it familiar for existing fans and new audiences alike.
Amazon’s TV series with Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy at the helm doesn’t look to adapt a previous installment into the game series. Instead, it presents a wholly fresh story with new characters along with a setting not seen since 1997. Since it takes place within the same continuity as the games, it gives fans something new to look forward to. Some might wonder when the show is occurring and what kind of influence it will have on the games or vice versa. This is where and when the show takes place.
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Amazon’s Fallout Takes Place After The Games
Fallouthas a peculiar aesthetic that sees a combination of mid-20th-century designs combined with advanced technology not even seen in the 21st century, such as robots and hovercars. However, The Great War that created the nuclear holocaust started well after 1950 in 2077. The first game in chronological order is the newest game,Fallout 76, which takes place in 2102, 25 years after the war. The wholeFalloutseries of games spans 185 years withFallout 4taking place last in its timeline. However, Amazon Prime’s newFalloutTV series will expand the timeline further.
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Amazon’sFalloutTV series takes place in 2296, nine years afterFallout 4and on the other side of the United States. More importantly, Bethesda head Todd Howard toldVanity Fairthat they wanted to verify the TV series could coexist with the games and made it canon:
We view what’s happening in the show as canon.
Taking place after the previous games gives fans of the franchise something unexpected to look forward to while simultaneously allowing them to recognize different factions and other nods to the games. The Brotherhood of Steel will play a significant role in the TV show, which fans know all too well. It’s likely that there will be various easter eggs and nods toFallout: New Vegassince the show is set in Los Angeles, California, only a four-hour drive from Sin City.
Where Amazon’s Fallout Takes Place
EveryFallout titleunder Bethesda’s watch has taken place on the eastern seaboard, withFallout 3in Washington D.C.,Fallout 4in Boston, andFallout 76in West Virginia. Interplay Entertainment and Black Isle Studios, creators of thefirst two main games, placedFalloutandFallout 2in California. Amazon’s series finds itself in Los Angeles, California, the same setting for the firstFalloutgame. It’s possible the show will eventually expand to other locations in the wasteland, adding to the franchise’s already expansive lore.
Fans haven’t seen what state the Western United States is in since the end ofFallout: New Vegas,and screenshots from Amazon’s series hasn’t revealed theNew California Republic, but it’s likely audiences will learn which ending toNew Vegasis canon through dialogue. Hopefully Amazon’s series dives more into the workings of the NCR. While they were prominent inNew Vegas, players didn’t learn much about them other than they were expanding their territory to the east of California, trying to annex Hoover Dam as part of their domain.
Major Players in Amazon’s Fallout Series
The fun thing about Todd Howard working so closely with the production team on Amazon’s series and showrunner Jonathan Nolan having a firm grasp of theFalloutloreis that the series looks to have the makings of a compellingFalloutstory. Many of the major players are present, from vault-dwellers to the Brotherhood of Steel. Even ghouls are going to be present, with one playing a significant role throughout the series.
Walton Goggins is an incredibly talented actor who is often underutilized. That doesn’t seem to be the case in Amazon’sFallout. Fans best know him as Boyd Crowder in FX’sJustified,but he can also be seen (or heard) portraying Cecil Stedman in Amazon’sInvincibleseries. His character inFallout, ostensibly known as The Ghoul, is a bounty hunter who has been wandering the wasteland for nearly 200 years. Goggins toldComicBook.com:
He survived the nuclear war. He is a bounty hunter. He is as ruthless as they come. Pragmatic. He’s a rascal. He’s got a wicked sense of humor.
Ghouls are survivors of The Great Warwith considerable exposure to the nuclear radiation from the fallout. Players encounter a variety of ghouls throughout theFalloutgames, most of which are feral and incapable of speech due to prolonged exposure. However, there are the rare few who are civil and only want to be left alone to live out their lives in peace. Goggins' character looks to have control of all his faculties, making him part of the latter group, minus the bit about being left alone.
The vault-dweller in question is Lucy (Ella Purnell) from Vault 33, who leaves the confines of her home and wanders theLos Angeles wasteland. She’ll be the focus of the series, similar to every otherFalloutgame following a vault-dweller. For a main character, the showrunners haven’t said much about her character, leaving the trailer to speak for itself. Lucy will undoubtedly be the link that pulls all of the major players together, including the Brotherhood of Steel’s Maximus who the showrunners have also been tight-lipped about.
Fallout
Fallout is a post-apocalyptic RPG franchise created by Interplay Entertainment and developed by Black Isle Studios, before Bethesda Softworks took over the IP in 2004. The series features a retrofuturistic style following a nuclear war that devastated the game’s world. Players typically inhabit a Vault Dweller, someone who remained safe in an underground shelter, appearing in the post-apocalyptic world where a problem needs to be solved. While the older games were more tactical RPGs, Fallout 3 took the franchise into the first person shooter genre, while also retaining the RPG elements.OVERRIDE
