Fallout studio says creator Todd Howard didn't want "the guy who makes video game movies" to make the Prime Video TV show: "We want the best director, the best showrunner possible"

Besthesda senior dev Emil Pagliarulo says the team behind Fallout wanted the best creatives possible when developing Prime Video's TV adaptation of the hit video game franchise – and they definitely made the right call.

"Hollywood, at the time, they wanted to throw the 'video game directors' at us," Pagliarulo told PC Gamer. "We don't want the guy who makes video game movies. We want the best director, the best showrunner possible. And it wasn't until Jonathan Nolan and his company had their pitch. This is the guy who wrote the Batman movies. This is the guy who made Westworld. This is the guy we want. A lot of it was waiting to find the right partner, and not just doing it because you could."

Interest in a live-action adaptation of Fallout dates all the way back to 2008, but it was actually Besthesda's then-marketing director Phil Hines who remained skeptical (and he actually cited 2005's Doom movie as an example of a "bad" adaptation... Not to mention the live-action adaptation of Alone in the Dark had come out that same year.

Fast forward to 2020, when Prime Video announced that a TV show based on the Fallout franchise was in development. Nolan and Lisa Joy, who created the dystopian western sci-fi series Westworld, had approached Besthesda with their idea. The rest, as they say, is history. The series, which premiered in 2024, broke streaming records for Prime and nabbed three Emmy nominations including Outstanding Drama and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama for Walton Goggins' portrayal of Cooper Howard aka the Ghoul.

Fallout season 2 hits Prime Video on December 17. For more, dive into our ranking of the best Fallout games.