Amazon's Fallout TV show is about "what happens when you outsource the survival of the human race"
Get ready for some post-apocalyptic commentary about the terrifying timeline we’re all actually living in.
The Fallout TV series that’s set to drop on Amazon Prime Video in April this year is about “what happens when you outsource the survival of the human race”, according to director and executive producer Jonathan Nolan.
This is just the latest little teaser Fallout fans have gotten regarding what they’re in for when the show arrives in a few months’ time, and it’s an interesting one given that plenty of the sneak peeks we’ve had so far have focused on what it’ll involve story and costume wise. For those more interested in how the show will aim for atmospherically in terms of its portrayal of the Fallout universe, it seems like you’ll need to prepare for plenty of satire based around our own reality.
Speaking to Empire, Nolan, who’s developed the show alongside fellow Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy - as well as showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner - has revealed that it’s about: “what happens when you outsource the survival of the human race.” What does that mean? Well, plenty of commentary on how soul-destroying living in the real world is nowadays.
“Just as M*A*S*H gets to talk about Vietnam through the lens of the Korean War,” Nolan explained, “we get to talk about the mess we’re in now through the lens of…‘What if everybody just gets on with it and destroys the f**king world?’”
This is definitely an interesting thing for one of the people behind a Fallout TV show to say, especially someone who’ll be lending their directing talents to several episodes of it. The Fallout series has always come with plenty of doses of radiation tinged satire of and commentary on the real world, but I’d argue a lot of this is specifically aimed at the ethos of the American atomic age that largely serves as the inspiration for its vision of an alternate future.
We’ll have to see whether the franchise’s world lends itself as well to the kind of dissection of our current age that Nolan looks to have in mind. It could well do, though hopefully not in a manner that could make this Fallout series feel a bit too much like Westworld or HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us.
Interestingly, Graham Wagner also revealed in this interview that the motivations driving show’s trio of main characters, a vault dweller, a Brotherhood of Steel member, and a ghoulified ex-cowboy, drew some inspiration from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. They’re apparently all searching for something, so hopefully it’s not a family member (hello, Fallout 3 and 4).
Not long after the Fallout TV show drops, massive Fallout 4 mod Fallout: London is also set to arrive, and we recently learned a bit about how it hopes to improve upon the vanilla game’s offerings in some areas.