Fallout director reveals why TV show is more relevant now than ever

When Lucy (Ella Purnell) finds the safety of her vault invaded, she is forced to head to the surface to find answers away from the retro-futuristic world she’s come to know as home.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press, Nolan explained that the warring factions she faces, and the hellscape world she finds herself in, were never meant to be so relevant to the present day, instead initially being intended as a dystopian nightmare rather than a potential reality.

"As with all these things, sometimes you get a little bit of kismet," he explained. "I think when we first started talking about the game and the adaptation in 2019, a lot of the concerns of the games felt almost quaint. Retro-futuristic.

"And sadly, I've been saying, you know, that was about three apocalypses ago.

"Sadly, since then, every year - whether it was the global pandemic or renewed violence in Europe and the Middle East - unfortunately, now the games seem rather prescient.

"I would like the games to seem less prescient, frankly. I'd like the series to feel a little less prescient, but I think one of the things that has been of some comfort to us in the middle of a global set of circumstances that I can only describe as a s**t show has been being able to talk about these things with a sense of humour, and I think that has been a bit of an expiation for all of us."

The game series, which has often been praised as one of the best ever created, has become known for its blend of dark humour amid the even darker circumstances.

It’s something that Purnell also found attractive when deciding to take on the leading role.

"It's balancing fun, sort of comedy and drama," she said. "Somehow, they managed to make the apocalypse really quite funny, and I think that that is very unique to Fallout."

The Fallout series is told through the eyes of three key characters - Lucy, a vault dweller who comes to the surface; Cooper Howard, aka The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a man who's seen more of the devastating effects of the apocalypse than most; and Maximus (Aaron Moten), a member of a military-style faction known as the Brotherhood of Steel, intent on instilling law and order to the wasteland above.

All three are original characters created for the series, though all are based in factions created within the game.

Acknowledging bringing a game such as this to life was a "big undertaking", Nolan added that they wanted to maintain the essence of elements of the game while carving out their own version of the world.

"We really wanted to have a high level of fidelity to the costumes, the props. We looked at all the games, but we looked at Fallout 4 probably more than any of the other games, and Fallout 76 a little bit, in terms of the specific design elements," he said.

"We love the T-60 [power armour]. We love that suit. So, I think in terms of deviations, things that we added to the canon, it's less about things we added and more about what we got right."

Fallout will arrive on Prime Video on Thursday 11th April 2024.

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