Todd Howard stopped some Fallout 5 ideas appearing in the Fallout TV show

Fallout series lead Todd Howard says he vetoed certain ideas in the upcoming Fallout TV show because he's saving them for Fallout 5.

Den of Geek has spoken to Howard and director and executive producer Jonathan Nolan, as well as showrunner Graham Wagner, about the forthcoming Prime Video series. Nolan surprisingly says that the creative leadership team on the Fallout TV show knows all about Bethesda's plans for Fallout 5, but they're "not telling anyone."

Howard obviously knows all about Fallout 5 because he's likely heading up the game itself at Bethesda Game Studios. "Well, there were some things where I said, 'Don’t do this because we are going to do that in Fallout 5,'" Howard says of his time working on the Fallout TV show. Unfortunately, Howard doesn't touch on what these things were. 

The long-time Bethesda Game Studios lead has previously touched on the overlap between the game series and the new TV show, saying that he wanted the Prime TV series to tell a new story, rather than just retelling a story from the Fallout games. To that effect, showrunner Wagner jokes during the interview that the new TV show is almost Fallout 6.

In a previous interview with Total Film, Nolan himself said that the Fallout TV show is basically Fallout 5. That sounds slightly more confusing than it actually is - Nolan's eyeing up the Fallout TV show as the next entry in the RPG series, while Howard's probably thinking about it more as a companion to the game series itself. Either way, the TV show isn't overshadowing the Bethesda games.

The Fallout TV show debuts on Prime Video next month on April 12, where all eight episodes will be available to stream at once. Elsewhere, it looks like the Fallout TV show will re-introduce a significant location from the series' past - as well as the formidable New California Republic. 

The Fallout TV show isn’t a direct adaptation because the creators want to make something new and "build on 25 years of creativity and thinking."