This past Thursday, Bethesda Game Studios announced that Amazon Studios has licensed the rights to their hit franchise, Fallout, to create a television series. Amazon Studios, in partnership with Kilter Films, would be tasked with fully realizing the vast and detailed world of Fallout, to deliver it to us on the small screen. Kilter Films, with executive producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, are most known for their work on the HBO series Westworld. Todd Howard (Executive producer for Bethesda Game Studios) showed his enthusiasm about the pair’s involvement with the beloved series by saying “Over the last decade, we looked at many ways to bring Fallout to the screen,” he continued, “But it was clear from the moment I first spoke with Jonah and Lisa a few years ago, that they and the team at Kilter were the ones to do it right. We’re enormous fans of their work and couldn’t be more excited to work with them and Amazon Studios.”
The duo over at Kilter spoke about their excitement of being able to get their hands on the franchise. In a joint statement, Jonah and Lisa said “Fallout is one of the greatest game series of all time. Each chapter of this insanely imaginative story has cost us countless hours we could have spent with family and friends. So we’re incredibly excited to partner with Todd Howard and the rest of the brilliant lunatics at Bethesda to bring this massive, subversive, and darkly funny universe to life with Amazon Studios,”. Amazon themselves have had a very good track record of putting quality content out as well. Their series’ specifically have been critically praised, with titles such as, The Boys, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Jack Ryan to name a few. Amazon Studio’s own COO and Co-Head of Television, Albert Cheng spoke about the announcement as well, “Fallout is an iconic global franchise, with legions of fans worldwide and a rich, deeply compelling storyline that powers it. And Jonah and Lisa are the perfect storytellers to bring this series to life,” he goes on by saying “We’re thrilled to join with Bethesda to bring Fallout to television.” The series currently does not have a scheduled date for release.
Although this surprise may be a welcome one, many fans such as myself still have a sour taste in their mouth after the most recent entry to the franchise, Fallout 76. A buggy mess, Fallout 76 launched as a game that seemed to be wholly unfinished. Bethesda made a shady decision during that time, and instead of completely overhauling the game with a post-launch patch, chose to add microtransactions instead. The game has reportedly come a long way since launch though and is apparently playable and fun. I myself have not played it since then, because my experience was completely sullied by the incident. What’s even worse is the fact that at the end of 2019, Bethesda decided to be even shadier and add a subscription service, furthering everyone’s appraisal that the company is milking the dedicated fans at this point. Bethesda has a pretty interesting track record with how they treat their IPs and it’s horribly obvious.
On the other hand, this could be a turning point for Fallout, as well as games being put into film and television in general. Even with Fallout 76’s missteps, the worlds in these games are truly unique and I’d love to see a new addition that I can binge. I feel like games being used in other forms of entertainment besides books, are finally being utilized the correct way. The Witcher series which is admittedly also based on a book was very well received and the second season is highly anticipated, to say the least. In the hands of the right writers, this could transform the series into something that die-hard fans, truly deserve.
Are you excited about the new about a Fallout TV series? Are any of you playing Fallout 76 still?
