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Fallout creator Todd Howard and showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet are remaining tight-lipped on whether or not Fallout season 2 confirms which New Vegas ending is actually canon.
Warning: Major spoilers for Fallout season 2 episodes 7 and 8 and Fallout: New Vegas below!
"We talk about it a lot," Howard tells GamesRadar+. Even when we do games, we talk about, 'Hey, what existed before, and how do you remain respectful to it?' I think what we try to do is tell the story from the perspective of the people in the world, and sometimes you're gonna get conflicting accounts."
The ending of Fallout season 2, episode 7 had fans speculating two things: Did the show just confirm that the Enclave dropped the bombs... and did they confirm that 'The House Always Wins' ending of Fallout: New Vegas is canon?
There are four potential endings in New Vegas: Caesar's Legion takes over New Vegas; the New California Republic takes control; Mr. House takes control; or there's the Yes Man ending, where the player joins forces with a Securitron and becomes his own rogue leader of what's left of the luckiest city on Earth. 'The House Always Wins' ending sees House survive, albeit immortalized in a computer, and annex New Vegas – effectively dismantling every other faction.
If you haven't played your way through the franchise, then you might not know that the games never answer who dropped the first bombs, and thus ignited the end of the world as we know it. House posits that whoever created the Deathclaws is responsible for igniting the nuclear disaster known as the Great War... and in the games, the creepy beasts were created by the United States government.
The Enclave, a mysterious, powerful, and genocidal faction, is made up of former politicians and US presidents. In season 2 episode 7, Cooper hands over the cold fusion technology to the last President of the United States (played by none other than Clancy Brown). In the season 2 finale, Cooper is arrested for doing so. This all but confirms that the President is part of the Enclave, and that the Enclave used cold fusion to ignite the Great War.
Because the TV show is canon to the video game franchise, this alters things considerably... but Robertson-Dworet says she "doesn't see it that way" and that they simply aimed to "open the question up of whether they did and also introduce [the Enclave] as one of the most powerful entities in this universe."
"And oftentimes, it's intentional that things are up for interpretation, and we have our own view of things that, you know, this series is gonna go on for a while yet," Howard adds. "But I think it's good to open up those conversations, and you may get history, you may get conflicting reports on how some things went."
Fallout season 2 is streaming in full on Prime Video. For more, check out our Fallout season 2 review.
