Director Jonathan Nolan is interviewed on the Fallout set, says "I'm not familiar with Fallout" while sipping Nuka-Cola.
With Fallout celebrating its 25th birthday, Bethesda has been rolling out a series of short videos containing interviews with Todd Howard, Tim Cain, and other developers responsible for bringing the games to life for the past quarter-century. Topics have ranged from how Howard learned he'd be working on Fallout 3 (via a Post-It note) and how the beloved Fallout: New Vegas was almost just a big expansion pack instead of a standalone game.
But Fallout isn't just a game series anymore, it's also a TV series. Yesterday Amazon gave us a single image from the show, and in a new video today (embedded above) we got to see a little bit more of the production, like one of the sets, some power armor, and even a bottle of cold, refreshing Nuka-Cola.
In the video Todd Howard discusses bringing Fallout from the medium of videogames to television, saying he'd always wanted to work on a Fallout adaptation with Jonathan Nolan, writer of Interstellar, screenwriter of The Dark Knight, and one of the writers and directors of HBO series Westworld.
Nolan is now writer, director, and executive producer of the Fallout TV series, and Howard talks about how they approached him to collaborate on Fallout. "It turned out he was a big fan of it," says Howard.
Cut to Jonathan Nolan on the set of the Fallout TV series. "Fallout? I love videogames. I'm not familiar with Fallout," Nolan says, completely deadpan. "Tell me a little bit about 'em."
An arm reaches in from the left of screen—it should be noted the arm is inside a suit of hulking power armor—to hand Nolan a bottle of Nuka-Cola. After taking a swig and (and gaining a few rads), Nolan's memory is jogged. "Yes, Fallout! The post-apocalyptic, humorous, dark, bleak, brilliantly written, annoyingly playable videogame franchise."
As for how Nolan got involved in the Fallout TV series: "Several years ago I decided I was going to write the next great American novel. And then a friend gave me a copy of Fallout 3. And now I'm working in television."
We can't see all that much of the set in the background—it's a bit blurry but we can see some rundown, ramshackle buildings and the sandy terrain surrounding it. Yesterday's tease from Amazon showed actors wearing Vault 33 jumpsuits, and that number indicates it's most likely a Vault located on the west coast of the United States, potentially California or Nevada. Maybe this is the exterior of that Vault.
As for the power armor, I wish we could see the full suit, but even just the arm looks pretty accurate. And the Nuka-Cola bottle, with fins at the bottom to make it look like a rocket, is straight out of Fallout 4. We haven't seen much of the Fallout series yet, but what we have seen looks pretty good so far.
