The new trailer for Amazon’s Fallout series shows more details about the story and characters. MeinMMO author Christoph Waldboth believes that the series could be a really good video game adaptation.
I love the wasteland. This may sound strange to outsiders, but fans of the Fallout series know what I mean.
I just really enjoy roaming through the mostly dilapidated cities and settlements, meeting bizarre characters and learning their stories. The scenario is actually very serious. The nuclear war is over, the remnants of humanity have either retreated into the vaults, i.e. underground bunkers, or are living somewhere among the ruins.
Like in Fallout 3, I emerge unsuspectingly from the vault in which I grew up and rise to the surface. What awaits me there fascinates me in its absurdity. Players can still experience this in the old parts, or in the online spin-off Fallout 76.
Lucy (Ella Purnell), the protagonist of Amazon’s new Fallout series, is likely to feel the same way. We already saw her in the first teaser, now, in the new, longer trailer, we find out a little more about her.
I was able to see the new trailer in advance and hear the thoughts of the director, writers and actors during a panel. I had the feeling that the creative minds behind the series know exactly what we fans want.
Here you can see the new trailer:
Fallout: New trailer for Amazon’s video game adaptation
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The showrunners are fans of the original
If you want to make a film about Fallout, you have to know Fallout well. This sounds logical at first, but it is anything but self-evident. Because it’s this strange mix of drama, action and absurd humor that makes the games unique for me.
Translating that into a series is no easy task. With Jonathan Nolan as director, there is someone at the helm of the production who has already gained a lot of experience in the series sector. For example with Westworld.
I found it refreshing when Nolan shared in the panel how much he fell in love with Fallout 3 several years ago. He played it for a whole year and couldn’t get away from it. I felt the same way, even though my entry was the successor New Vegas. When Nolan finally got the nod from Todd Howard and Bethesda, it was a dream come true for him.
However, it was important to him to tell a completely new story. He wanted to create his own version of the Fallout universe. I find this approach to be laudable. This is the only way to create something unique.
For me, Fallout’s greatest strengths are the many small and large stories. They often talk about the problems of the wasteland inhabitants – and about the social differences. Fallout has always been political.
According to Nolan, this point will be particularly important. The protagonist Lucy has lived in the safe vault all her life, so she was correspondingly privileged. However, as seen in the trailer, she will leave the shelter and expose herself to the dangers of the surface. She will meet a wide variety of characters – and hear their perspectives. Which brings us to the characters.
The characters come from different worlds
In addition to Lucy, who clearly develops into a hardened fighter over the course of the series, Maximus (Aaron Moten) also plays an important role. He is part of the Brotherhood of Steel faction. In the trailer it is hinted that he is out for revenge. But why?
Lucy and him will meet. Two completely different world views collide. These contrasts are what have always made Fallout special to me.
The third, probably craziest main character we see in the trailer is the bounty hunter Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), who runs through the wasteland as a ghoul. According to the series creators, he is an ambivalent character. He has his own morals and is generally very weird. For me he embodies the spirit of Fallout: unpredictability and a good dose of recklessness.
Fallout could be a real highlight
The trailer shows impressive images and, in my opinion, impresses with its great attention to detail. I recognize many elements from the games. Weapons, armor, and of course the obligatory Vault Boy is also there. Everything looks handmade and real – CGI was avoided wherever possible.
I’m currently in good spirits about the new series. The ingredients are right, as are the demands of those responsible. I have faith in the man who, in addition to Westworld, was also co-author of his brother Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and Interstellar.
I’m particularly curious to see whether we’ll be able to hit the right tonality in the end. According to Nolan, that was the biggest difficulty in the adaptation, and I hope it’s successful.
All eight episodes will be released simultaneously on Amazon Prime on April 11, 2024. We’ll know more by then at the latest. And as far as I know, after the series ends I will install Fallout: New Vegas again and start a new save game. The first teasers of the new series already excited fans.