Like the well-worn pieces of a power armor suit, the long-awaited Fallout TV series appears to finally be coming together. Initially teased back in summer of 2020, the live action adaptation of the post-apocalyptic action RPG series has several significant updates over the past few months, the latest of which being the casting of Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets, Army of the Dead) in a lead role opposite Walton Goggins (The Righteous Gemstones), as reported by Variety.
Details are currently scant when it comes to what the plot of the forthcoming series (which is currently in production) might be, but it is known like the video game series, the TV series will be set in an retro-futuristic alternate future set several decade after a nuclear war between China and the U.S. has left most of the world an irradiated wasteland. Whether the series will take place within the same continuity as the games or adopt a new timeline (à la the “Silver Timeline” of Paramount Plus’ Halo series).
With that being said, here’s everything we currently know about the live-action Fallout television series.
The Fallout TV series will stream on Amazon Prime
As revealed through the series’ initial teaser trailer, the live-action Fallout TV series is a co-production between Amazon Studios and Westworld creator’s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films. The series, officially marketed as an “Prime Original,” will stream on Amazon Prime Video.
“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,” Amazon Studios COO and Co-Head of Television Albert Cheng said in a press release. “We’re thrilled to join with Bethesda to bring Fallout to television.”
Westworld creator and executive producer Jonathan Nolan will direct the pilot episode
In January Variety reported that Jonathan Nolan, who would be executive producing the Fallout TV series alongside his collaborator and wife Lisa Joy, would also direct the series’ first episode. The couple has previously collaborated on Westworld, the show version of which they created.
“Fallout is one of the greatest game series of all time,” Joy and Nolan said in a statement at the 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.”
The writer of 2018’s Tomb Raider and the executive producer of Portlandia will be helming the series
While Nolan and Joy will be executive producers on the Fallout show, the actual showrunner duties will fall to Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner. Robertson-Dworet is a screenwriter whose previous credits include co-writing the screenplay for 2018’s Tomb Raider starring Alicia Vikander and 2019’s Captain Marvel starring Brie Larson. Wagner’s credits include several notable shows including The Office, Portlandia, and Silicon Valley.
Ella Purnell has been cast as one of the leads of the series alongside Walton Goggins
Variety reports that Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets, Star Trek: Prodigy) has been cast in an lead role in the upcoming Fallout TV series. Walton Goggins (Justified, The Righteous Gemstones) has also been cast in a lead role for the series.
While precise details are still unknown regarding Goggins and Purnell’s roles, Variety claims that Goggins will play a Ghoul, one of the human characters horribly disfigured by exposure to radiation in the Fallout universe, while Purnell’s character is described as, “upbeat and uncannily direct with an all-American can-do spirit [with] an intensity in her eyes says she might just be a tiny bit dangerous.”