Fallout TV show finally enters production – with some help from the MCU

Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout TV show – based on the popular game franchise – has finally got its showrunners, marking the first step in getting the long-awaited adaptation off the ground.

As reported by Deadline – and confirmed by a retweet from the official Fallout Twitter account – the Fallout TV series will be overseen by writer-producer Graham Wagner, known for his work on comedy series such as Silicon Valley, the US version of The Office, and the John Mulaney sitcom (Mulaney).

But he’ll also be joined by screenwriter Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who co-wrote the screenplay for 2019 Marvel movie Captain Marvel, as well as 2018’s Tomb Raider reboot and the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie.

We’re tentatively excited about the talent attached to the project so far, then, with plenty of action and comedy experience to make the dangerous – and fiercely satirical – wasteland of the Fallout games come to life.

Fallout was always going to be a tricky property to adapt for screen, given how at-odds its barren, hopeless landscapes are with the oddball and often surprising humor found within it. 

We could easily see a Fallout adaptation becoming a humorless post-apocalyptic drama like The Road or The Book of Eli in the wrong hands – discarding what makes the Fallout games so special – but these specific showrunners point to a better, lighter direction.

Changing the narrative

We got a brief teaser for the show in mid-2020, but the ongoing pandemic appears to have halted production plans for some time. We likely won’t get the show in 2022, then, as we initially hoped, and late 2023 – if not 2024 – seems much more likely.

By the time the show comes out, we may well have heard more about the release date for Fallout 5, which we know is happening at some point – and we’re sure Bethesda is hoping some cross-medium efforts will help to erase the sour taste of Fallout 76 from our mouths. In the meantime, though, we’re getting the sci-fi RPG Starfield in late 2022, and The Elder Scrolls 6 in the coming years after that.

Amazon Studios is working in tandem with Kilter Films, the production company that belongs to Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. Developer and publisher Bethesda is also directly involved in the show, and will be co-producing the series, with key series figure Todd Howard attached as an executive producer.