Bethesda Game Studios is well-known for creating popular video game series, but for the first time in the studios’ history, their Fallout series was adapted into a TV series that was released on Amazon Prime Video on 10th April, 2024. Thanks to shows like The Last of Us, video game adaptations are becoming quite popular nowadays. So naturally, Bethesda hopped on the bandwagon as well.
Todd Howard, Bethesda’s boss, recently explained that Jonathan Nolan was the man who convinced him as he was always against this idea. Bethesda also has the Elder Scrolls series under its belt and fans have been eagerly waiting for an announcement regarding the adaptation of this video game franchise as well but this project will only happen if someone like Nolan works on it.
The Fallout TV series was only greenlit because of Jonathan Nolan’s unique approach
Bethesda Game Studios boss, Todd Howard, finally revealed the reason why he agreed to this project at the Fallout TV series’ premiere in Los Angeles. In a conversation on the red carpet with IGN, Howard explained that it was Jonathan Nolan‘s vision that convinced him,
“This is something that I said no to for like, a decade – Everyone wanted to make a (Fallout) TV show or a movie, and I was like, ‘nahhh.’ I wasn’t really feeling it. I met Jonah – Jonathan Nolan – and I love his work: The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Person of Interest, and then Westworld, and he and I kind of hit it off and I felt like, ‘Hey, do you wanna do this? I’d like to approach it like it’s another entry in the games.’ Like, let’s do a new location, new story, let him and his crazy lunatic people he works with kind of do what they do, and we’re really happy with how it turned out.”
Just like Rockstar Games, Bethesda Game Studios was also not interested in adapting a video game series, as there are high chances of these adaptations butchering the franchise by not staying true to the source material. Jonathan Nolan treated the project like another entry in the video game series, an approach that kept Howard hooked.
Fallout premiered on Prime Video on April 10, 2024, and upon release, it was bombarded with positive reviews. IGN has claimed in its review that it is “among the best video game adaptations ever made.” Producers have expressed interest in working on a second season, and if not, the California Film Commission made them an offer they can’t refuse.
Will fans get an Elder Scrolls TV series in the future?
In his short interview, Howard also talked about adapting other Bethesda’s titles, particularly the Elder Scrolls series. Howard made it clear that he does not like this idea but there is a possibility if someone like Nolan works on the project,
“I don’t know. There’s nothing in the works – Everybody asks, like, about Elder Scrolls, and I keep saying no also. And I would approach those – I’ll probably say no. You never know if someone’s gunna click – I can’t predict the future but this has been one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve ever done, and we’re just kind of over the moon, everybody in the studio with seeing it this way.”
Jonathan Nolan has revealed in the past that the success of The Last of Us TV series is the reason why fans got the Fallout TV series. For many years, video game studios steered away from this idea but now, thanks to fans’ demand, many studios have started working on adapting their popular video games.
Fallout, streaming now on Prime Video.
