First Look: The 'Fallout' Photos Are Exactly What Fans Hoped For

By Nate Parker | TV | November 29, 2023 |

By Nate Parker | TV | November 29, 2023 |

“War. War never changes.” Ron Perlman’s famous line from the original 1997 Fallout strategy game introduced fans to a post-apocalyptic world where a 1950s nuclear war between the United States and Russia decimated the planet’s population. 2 centuries later, the remaining humans either fight the irradiated wildlife, feral Ghouls, and Hulk-like Super Mutants for survival, or live in massive underground Vaults where the pressures of population growth, social engineering, and dwindling resources eventually drive the survivors out to the surface where they’re ripe for the plucking. While war never changes it does occasionally get a fresh coat of paint and after 3 tactical strategy games, 3 FPS single-player games, and 1 FPS-MMORPG, the first live-action interpretation is on the way from Prime Video.

Details are sketchy about the series, apart from assurances by director and executive producer Todd Howard that it won’t rehash any previous game plots. We’ve been granted access to some photos from the show’s benevolent creators, and they show a world faithful to original game’s vision As a veteran of every Fallout campaign since the beginning, it’s my duty to give you a basic understanding of the post-war Wasteland and its people.

The main Fallout protagonists always begin their journey as Vault dwellers forced to leave their safe dwellings for the surface, and it appears the television series begins much the same. Lucy (Ella Purnell, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Yellowjackets) has lived in Vault 33 her whole life, and her father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks, The House with a Clock in Its Walls) is the Vault Overseer. Lucy ventures into the Wasteland, the shattered remnants and toxic environment that most of the human population has endured (or not) for the last 200 years. The Wasteland has hardened humanity, and has a bleak but often grimly-hilarious tone. Think Mad Max with a more obvious sense of humor. This alternate timeline featured post-WWII America that focused on nuclear power, with even private homes and vehicles driven by fissionable material. All that background radiation plus nuclear fallout irradiated the ground, water, and surface creatures, often to an unrecognizable degree.

Not all humans exposed to lethal radiation levels were killed. Some turned into Ghouls, skinless and seemingly immortal humans who are often derided and discriminated against by those humans whose DNA remains pure, just because the ghouls are ugly and occasionally become feral, turning into psychotic cannibals. Walter Goggins (Justified, The Righteous Gemstones) plays one of the sane Ghouls, a bounty hunter with a mysterious past.

Ghouls aren’t the only human menace in the Wasteland, or even the only altered ones. Along with the scavengers, gangs, and cannibals there are Super Mutants, humans changed into hulking abominations with limited intelligence and monstrous appetites thanks to the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV). One of the few forces capable of fighting them off are the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood are the closest thing to a governing body in parts of the Wasteland, and have devoted themselves to raising human civilization from the ashes by gathering as much knowledge and tech as they can. They’d be the good guys if they weren’t also a fascist military organization who rule their territory with an iron fist and want every Ghoul dead, feral or not. Maximus (Aaron Moten, Emancipation, Father Stu) is one of the Brotherhood’s soldiers, determined to complete his mission at any cost.

The Brotherhood does have the coolest toys, though. Between the airships, verti-birds, power armor, and heavy weaponry they’re all but unstoppable, and only their small numbers and limited resources hold them back from total domination.

That’s all we know for now. It looks accurate enough to get this die-hard Fallout fan excited, particularly thanks to Goggins’ appearance. I’m sure we’ll learn more before Fallout premiers on Prime Video on April 12, 2024.