Fallout is now officially in its second season, with the popular show returning one day early on December 16 for ravenous fans. Reportedly, Amazon is aiming to film the third season sooner to cut down on wait times, and that may hold true for as long as the show runs. But don’t consider Bethesda a TV studio, as they’re still planning big things for the future of this game franchise, a future that may be impacted by the show’s events.
Fallout 5 Might Follow or Line Up with TV Show
The first season of Fallout was a massive success, but it, unlike The Last of Us, was not a direct adaptation of one of the games. Rather, it was an adventure within the universe of the games, so it could happen around other events and not interfere. There weren’t too many characters from the games, either.
The events of that first season were set a decade after Fallout 4‘s events, putting it at the furthest point in the main timeline. Now, Season 2 is out, and it follows the events of Season 1. It’s a pseudo-adaptation of New Vegas, but, based on all evidence, it’s going to continue forward in the timeline. What happens after that?
That could be where a fifth game in the franchise comes into play. New Vegas is technically a spin-off of sorts, which is why it wasn’t called Fallout 4. That could make a potential adaptation not break the canon and timeline of the games and show, but either way, everything seems to be moving directly forward in time.
It’s unclear at what point in the show’s run (sometime during or potentially after) that a fifth mainline game would be released, but it’s something Bethesda lead Todd Howard is weighing now. In an interview, he basically confirmed that the show would affect what happens in the next game.
“Fallout 5 will be existing in a world where the stories and events of the show happened or are happening,” Howard said to BBC. “We are taking that into account.” It is unclear what exactly Bethesda is working on now, which will determine when a fifth game will come out. That will determine what events of the show will matter.
It would probably be easiest from a writing standpoint, which typically comes toward the beginning of the development process, to set the game in the middle of the show. That could be between Seasons 1 and 2 or after Season 2.
Either way, that gives the show freedom to go where it wants or needs to and makes the game’s narrative simpler. Regardless, it probably won’t, like the others, have Lucy or The Ghoul in video game form, but be totally separate with new characters.
This game has been announced since 2022, but Bethesda confirmed it would come after Elder Scrolls VI, which is one of those games no one is convinced is actually real or is ever going to come out. ES6 was announced in 2018, and there’s still very little information on it.
However, earlier this month, prior to the launch of the second season, Howard did confirm that Fallout had most of the team’s attention compared to their other IPs. “We’ve had a long-term plan for Fallout, and so I wish I could talk about all those today,” Howard said. “I’ll just say this: It’s the franchise that we’re doing the most in right now.”
Fallout games got played a lot more (by myself, included) after Season 1, but Howard isn’t sure if Season 2 will send viewers to their consoles or not. “There’s still so many people that won’t play a game – I think that’s getting better but there’s still people who are intimidated,” he said. “They still get to experience Fallout and I think that’s really important because they’re now equal fans of the world.”
Conclusion
While it may be a while before a fifth game is released, it’s a really good time to be a Fallout fan. The new season is here, and a new game is somewhere on the horizon. And mixing games with shows has never really been done successfully at this level, so it’s exciting that the show and games will play off of one another in the future.
