Fallout TV series' latest trailer reveals a familiar Bethesda post-apocalypse

07.03.2024 - 15:09 / eurogamer.net / Todd Howard / Bethesda Softworks / Jonathan Nolan / Graham Wagner

Four years after a live-action Fallout TV adaptation was officially announced, the show is almost upon us. And ahead of its Amazon Video debut on 12th April — and following years of official images, unofficial behind-the-scenes shots, and even a sizeable teaser — we've got our best look yet at the adaptation, courtesy of a new three-minute series trailer.

Going by the trailer below, the adaptation makes a positive first impression, convicingly capturing the Fallout games' ever-shifting tone — blending gee-whizz '50s Americana with grubby post-apocalyptic mayhem as Ella Purnell's Vault Dweller protagonist Jean leaves her lifelong underground home to venture out into the Los Angeles Wasteland.

Speaking during a press panel ahead of today's trailer reveal, co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet explained that while the adaptation is set in the world of Fallout, it's also a «new story that comes after the events we've seen» in the games. «The show is built on 25 years of creativity and thinking and building,» co-showrunner Graham Wagner added, «and we sort of thought the best thing to do is to continue that versus retread it. Because that's sort of what has worked with Fallout over the years. It's traded hands… it's a living thing… and we felt like we ought to take a swing at trying to build a new piece on top of all of that.»

While its story might be unfamiliar, the Fallout vibe is not, and the TV show team was keen to praise the series' authenticity. «The tone was a big thing,» executive producer and Episodes 1-3 director Jonathan Nolan explained. «I think the tone was maybe the most challenging and the most intimidating thing for me… And the power Armour in particular was one of those things you go, 'Oh, how on earth are we going to do that?' But we got there.» Graham joked: «And when they got the Brylcreem hair… I was like, nailed it.»

«The trick with Fallout,» Bethesda's Todd Howard — who serves as executive producer on Amazon's series — continued, «is it has so many different tones. It goes between the serious, the dramatic, and action. And some humour, and nostalgic music, and dramatic music, and I think… what the show does really well is it weaves those different things together in a very unique blend that only Fallout can bring and they've done an awesome job.»

As to what the show has taken from Fallout beyond its familiar iconography, Robertson-Dworet touched on the social commentary «inherent to the idea» of Vaults. "[There are] these incredibly prescient themes, factionalism being maybe the most obvious when you play the game".

«The world seems to be ever more frightening and dour [right now],» Nolan added, «And so an