The press cycle for Amazon’s upcoming Fallout TV show is in full swing, and a side effect is that we’re already getting some morsels of information about upcoming games. There’s been a lot of chatter about Fallout 5, mostly due to some confusion on the press tour for the Amazon TV show. Bethesda is, predictably, remaining tight-lipped. So: do we actually know anything concrete about the fifth mainline game in the RPG series yet? Let’s discuss.
Jonathan Nolan creates a minor comms snafu
Is Fallout Season 1 essentially just Fallout 5? The short answer is no, not really.
During a promotional interview for the Amazon series, co-creator Jonathan Nolan claimed that it was essentially “Fallout 5,” which set off some alarms for folks.
“Our series sits in relation to the games as the games sit in relation to each other,” he said at the time. “It’s almost like we’re Fallout 5. I don’t want to sound presumptuous, but it’s just a non-interactive version of it, right?”
Fallout 5 release date speculation ensues
The quote made the rounds as gamers anxiously assumed that the show was somehow going to take the place of an official Fallout 5 game from Bethesda. This was despite the fact that the studio has tacitly confirmed plans for Fallout 5. Though game series director Todd Howard is unwilling to put a date on it, it is currently believed that Fallout 5 will be on deck sometime after the next Elder Scrolls game is completed.
In the simplest possible terms, it’s coming, but it could be as much as a decade away. If anything, Fallout obsessives should perhaps consider the show water in a desert. Fallout‘s multi-season run will be relied upon to fill the gap between now and the distant release of the next game.
The showrunners do know a thing or two about Fallout 5 though
Nolan has since attempted to pump the brakes on the rumour mill, clarifying that the Fallout show isn’t a replacement the next game, and in fact steers well clear of that. In a follow-up with Den Of Geek at SXSW 2024, Nolan confirmed that the show is its own original story, at least partially informed by what game series’ director Todd Howard has told him not to do.
Why would Howard put the kibosh on something creatively? It’s because “we are going to do that in Fallout 5,” according to Howard, who says he shared details of what will eventually become the Fallout 5 story with the show’s creators. He’s effectively called a decade-long dibs on any story beats already earmarked for Fallout 5.
With that flag firmly planted, co-showrunner Graham Wagner joked that they had instead made “Fallout 6.”
In the end, what does any of this mean? It means that that Amazon’s very cool, very good new show does sit within the Fallout canon and chronology, but does not (at this stage) impact any future games that you won’t be playing for a decade anyway. You are free to settle in and watch the show through without worrying that you’re spoiling yourself.
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