Gamers rejoice for the apocalypse is upon us. Prime Video released the full trailer for its highly anticipated series adaptation of Fallout, the storied video game franchise from Bethesda Game Studios, via an official press release. All episodes arrive on the streamer on April 11, day sooner than previously announced. View the trailer below.
The series follows a new set of characters in the world of Fallout, which imagines the United States splintered by nuclear warfare. In its wake, factions of haves and have-nots experience two completely different existences. The haves, known as Vaulters, reside underground protected from the terrors on the surface. Those above struggle in the Wasteland, a ravaged terrain of what remained after the war. The series stars Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets, Arcane) as Lucy, a naive Vaulter; Aaron Moten (Emancipation, Native Son) as Maximus, a member of the militant faction, Brotherhood of Steel; and Walton Goggins (Justified, I’m A Virgo) as an infamous bounty hunter, The Ghoul, who is connected to the country’s post-apocalyptic state.
In addition to our three leads, the series also stars Sarita Choudhary (Mississippi Masala, And Just Like That…), Dale Dickey (Claws, Winter’s Bone), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Dune), Zach Cherry (Severance, You), Leslie Uggams (Deadpool, Dotty & Soul), Michael Emerson (Evil, Person of Interest), Frances Turner (New Amsterdam, After We Fall), Mosiés Arias (The Kings of Summer, Monos), Dave Register (Heightened, The Witch Files), Johnny Pemberton (Superstore, Unplugging), Annabel O’Hagan (Law & Order: SVU, Rent Free), Rodrigo Luzzi (Cursed, You Are Here), and Xelia Mendes-Jones (The Wheel of Time, Havoc).
The series is orchestrated by Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and produced by Kilter Films, Bethesda Game Studios, and Bethesda Softworks, according to the press release. Nolan serves as director and executive producer alongside showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel, Tomb Raider) and Graham Wagner (Portlandia, Silicon Valley), and Head of Bethesda, Todd Howard (The Elder Scrolls).
At an exclusive presser ahead of the trailer’s release, Purnell and Moten were joined by Nolan, Robertson-Dworet, Wagner, and Howard to discuss the series’ journey from video game to live-action.
“I think it started, for me, with Fallout 3,” Nolan stated, “which devoured about a year of my life. You know, I was an aspiring young writer at that point. It almost derailed my entire career. It’s so ludicrously playable and fun.” He went on to describe how twice he’s been allowed to create and adapt a universe that he “absolutely loved.”
Howard described how the team was approached multiple times after Fallout 3 to bring their narrative alive in a series or film. They were cautious but things were different with Nolan.
“…Jonah was somebody I was such a fan of the movies he did and the TV he was doing, and I actually, you know, had someone reach out,” Howard explained. “And when I first talked to Jonah, I mean, honestly, it was like someone I had known for a long time, you know, obviously played the games a ton, and his approach, right from the get-go, was in sync with what I was thinking.”
Purnell and Moten described what it was like to work every day on set.
“It was so much fun working on this show,” Purnell said at the press conference. “Every shoot is hard. Not every shoot is fun. And this one was just so fun for an actor. No two days were the same.”
“You know, I think we spend a lot of time doing things that are normal, or there’s a mundaneality to them. You know what I mean?,” Moten discussed about his experience playing Maximus. “And we spend a lot of time doing that at work. So to get to, you know, trudge around the wasteland with the power armor by my side is an experience in itself.”
Robertson-Dworet praised the series for its the show’s production pieces, acknowledging production designer Howard Cummings.
“Truly, arriving on set every day was like Christmas morning. And, you know, that I think is something that Jonah has brought to all of his projects is just this incredible eye for meticulous detail. Every detail has to be perfect, and so much of it, we made physically. It’s not the effects. So I was really just grateful for that.”
Wagner was also thankful for the practical effects, specifically a very exact detail.
“This is a small thing. But if you saw in the trailer Chet, who gets splattered in blood, they got the Brylcreem just right,” Wagner said laughing. “I know that’s not as ambitious as the — but when they got the Brylcreem in his hair just right, I was like, nailed it. And, you know, I guess we could have done that on a smaller show.”
“We like to say we make the games that we obsess over every pixel. And Jonah and crew, they obsessed over every pixel [laugh] of every frame, just to make it authentic,” Howard praised. “And the other thing, watching that trailer and the trick with Fallout is it has so many different tones. It goes between the serious, the dramatic, and action, and some humor and nostalgic music and dramatic music.”
All eight episodes of Prime Video’s Fallout come to screens on Thursday, April 11.