Fallout

Set in the world of the video games, the television series Fallout begins in 2077, when nuclear bombs devastate the United States. Its main story takes place more than two centuries later, in 2296, amid the ruins of Southern California. The series was created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, and its first season premiered on Prime Video in April 2024.

The plot follows three people whose lives converge in the wasteland. Lucy MacLean, played by Ella Purnell, has grown up in Vault 33, an underground community built to shelter people from nuclear war. When raiders attack and take her father, Hank, Lucy leaves the vault to find him. Her sheltered upbringing shapes her choices, but the surface quickly tests her belief that people will respond to kindness in kind.

Maximus, played by Aaron Moten, is a squire in the Brotherhood of Steel, a militarized order that collects and guards advanced technology. He serves under Knight Titus and becomes entangled in the hunt for a valuable piece of prewar technology. His storyline shows the Brotherhood’s strict hierarchy and the ambitions and compromises of its members.

The third central character is the Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins. Before the bombs fell, he was Cooper Howard, a Hollywood actor and advertising spokesman for Vault-Tec. In the wasteland, he is a scarred, long-lived bounty hunter. Flashbacks to his prewar life connect the catastrophe to Vault-Tec and to the political and commercial forces surrounding the company’s vault program.

The series uses recognizable elements from the games, including vault dwellers, power armor, bottle caps, and the Brotherhood of Steel. It also tells a new story rather than adapting one game’s exact sequence of events. Its setting draws particularly on Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, while its plot introduces new characters and expands the franchise’s history. The show’s post-apocalyptic California includes locations such as the ruins of Los Angeles and the desert community of Filly.

Jonathan Nolan directed the first three episodes and served as an executive producer alongside Lisa Joy and others. The production was filmed in locations including New York and Utah. Its first season consists of eight episodes, ending with revelations about Hank’s past and the fate of Shady Sands, a major settlement in the game series’ lore. Amazon renewed Fallout for a second season before the first season had finished airing.