“You have certain advantages”: Jonathan Nolan Reveals Fallout Show is Superior to the Games in One Crucial Area

Jonathan Nolan’s Fallout TV series has managed to cross all expectations and has been labeled as one of the best video game adaptations of all time by various prestigious publications. The unique approach of treating the show as another installment in the video game series certainly paid off as it was constantly entertaining and remained true to the source material.

Obviously, there is a vast difference between a TV series and a video game but Nolan believes that they had one advantage in terms of storytelling while adapting the game. As for the future seasons, showrunner Graham Wagner explained that he would stick to the eight-episode format as anything more than that would be very challenging for them.

Jonathan Nolan explained how the storytelling in video games is different from a TV series

The creator of the Fallout TV series, Jonathan Nolan, recently opened up about the challenges they faced while working on the show. In an interview with WindowsCentral, Nolan explained the difference between storytelling in a TV show and a video game,

“Obviously, with this series we can’t give the audience the same open-world interactive experience they have with the games – They don’t get to decide if the Vault Dweller’s gonna be good, bad, or somewhere in-between. You have certain advantages in [a] series, where you can have an ensemble form of storytelling, which would be more difficult to do, more challenging to do in a video game. You can have flashbacks, we can see more of that world – You lose some things and you gain some things, but it’s our hope that we’ve honored the essence and the spirit of the games.”

It’s safe to say that their approach worked out as the show’s storytelling was one of the primary things that made the show entertaining.

In various ways, it’s difficult to set up a story in a video game but with the series, they have everything under their control. They were tasked to wrap up the story in just 8 episodes and in the future, fans might see the same format.

Graham Wagner was glad they worked on an 8-episode format for Fallout

In the same interview, showrunner Graham Wagner opened up about the show’s production. Wagner feels like fitting the entire Fallout franchise in just 8 episodes was difficult, but at the same time, it was the most they could do,

“Eight hours of content, of story, to capture the spirit of Fallout, which is a video game franchise that’s been going for 25 years, you can spend a thousand hours in a single [game]…it’s an incredible challenge, but at the same time, the scope of the production was so great… I think we might’ve died if we tried to do a 24-episode order of a show like this – Humanely, it’s only eight, but creatively, gosh, it would be great to have more. If we’re lucky enough to get a second season, we may be counting our lucky stars that it’s only eight so that we can not die.”

Prime Video has not officially renewed Fallout for a second season but it is believed that fans will get to see more soon thanks to the success of the first season. Starring Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, and Walton Goggins, Fallout premiered on Prime Video on April 10, 2024.