The Fallout games have created an entire universe that spans many titles and hundreds of years in their timelines. All of the in-game events present an alternate-reality United States of America, which is fictional but feels real due to the detailed chronology.
So, when Jonah Nolan’s Fallout was released, it added a new milestone to the timeline of the franchise. However, the director knew he wanted one thing for his series: to be part of the universe cohesively. This required certain decisions to be made that, for better or worse, have generated a lot of talk for the show.
Amazon’s Fallout is The Furthest Along in the Timeline
The benefit of having several entrants in a franchise is that it sets a foundation on which to build new stories. With Fallout starting in 1997, the franchise has since built a vast world where all one needs is creativity. That’s why every game has an original storyline and can reference events and characters between titles.
The TV series is stated to occur in the year 2296, after the events of all the games. Fallout 4 takes place in 2287, and New Vegas in 2281. The events in the show thus have major lore implications, and some fans have theorized that the series has retconned one of the best games in the franchise. But Nolan has explicitly stated that all the events from the previous games did occur.
Both Todd Howard and Jonah Nolan wanted the series to stand as another entry into the universe instead of just retelling the story of a game. Nolan told IGN that the goal was to simply add to, not change, the timeline laid out by all the studios that have worked on the franchise thus far.
If we’d gone a different direction, the show would be the only thing that doesn’t fit with that universe… We didn’t want to be in our own private corner of an elseworld or a different universe. I think that will be less meaningful to me watching the series, to know it was completely divorced from the reality of the games.
The TV Show Calls Back to Many events from Past Games
A live-action adaptation of a game franchise wouldn’t be complete without faithful references to the games. Being the latest in the franchise timeline would mean fans expect a fair number of references to the games. Nolan’s series has enough and more peppered in throughout its runtime.
While fans of the games will undoubtedly pick up on the references, the show is approachable for people who have not played the games as well. The first episode’s opening seven minutes do a great job of setting the stage for the later events so that newcomers to the franchise don’t feel adrift without direction.
The series has garnered positive reviews from critics and most of the fan base. While some are not happy with particular aspects of the show, Fallout is another example of how live-action adaptations of games can be successful if handled correctly.
What are your thoughts on the series so far? Let us know in the comments below!
