There’s already a live-action Fallout series you can watch right now
Video game adaptations are everywhere these days, meaning that the likes of Uwe Boll's abysmal live-action The House of the Dead feel like a bad dream from yesteryear. While Paramount's Halo and Sony's Uncharted weren't a hit with everyone, The Last of Us, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Detective Pikachu more than made up for it.
It seems everyone wants a slice of the pixel pie, and after Five Nights at Freddy's became the highest-grossing horror movie of 2023, we can see why. Upcoming adaptations include a Ghost of Tsushima movie, Borderlands, and another Silent Hill. But what about the small screen?
There's already a live-action Fallout series
Amazon seems to be leading the way with video game series, having bagged the monumental IPs of Fallout and God of War. The former is the furthest along, with Westworld's Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy releasing Fallout on April 12, 2024.
We finally got our first Fallout trailer, which gave us a look at Ella Purnell's Lucy, Aaron Moten's Maximus, and Walton Goggins as a gunslinger known as "The Ghoul." It all looks like a suitably high budget and faithful recreation of the source material, but did you know there's already a live-action Fallout series out there?
As pointed out by PC Gamer, Fallout: Nuka Break is a web series that started out as a YouTube movie in 2011. The project was a labour of love from Wayside Digital, and without the approval of Bethesda, it's an unofficial Fallout series. Still, Bethesda knows it exists and even called it "great work" on its blog.
In Nuka Break, we follow Twig the Vault Dweller, whose sole aim is to find some delicious Nuka Cola. There's also Scarlett, a former New Vegas slave who is trying to escape the bounty on her head. Rounding off the group is Ben, a Ghoul who has a heart of gold but is on the verge of turning feral.
Nuka Break was so successful there was a second season, a second movie (called Red Star), and a prequel series. Unfortunately, a pretty scathing YouTube video from the original team was released in 2018, condemning Wayside and seeing them part ways with the project. Still, Nuka Break is as close as we've got to a faithful Fallout...until now.
Amazon's Fallout series is Fallout 5
Click to enlargeWith Nolan and Joy's Fallout being canon with the game series, Executive producer and showrunner Graham Wagner has referred to the series as "Fallout 5." Speaking at CCXP (via IGN), Wagner explained, "We didn't start from a place of characters from the games.
"We set things after. We kind of told ourselves, this is Fallout 5, this is just another installation, and we're starting with fresh snow." We know Bethesda is planning a fifth mainline game, but with Starfield only just blasting off and The Elder Scrolls 6 coming next, we've got one hell of a wait ahead.
Thankfully, if Fallout is anywhere near as good as it looks, it'll surely get a second season. We were already spoiled with HBO's The Last of Us, but now, it could be joined by another gaming giant getting the adaptation it deserves.
