While Prime Video’s adaptation of Fallout took a long time to come together, the show’s two seasons have set an admirably high new standard for entries into the genre. The many critically derided movie adaptations of video games prove that it took Hollywood a while to work out how to tackle the medium.

However, hit TV shows like HBO’s post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us prove that the small screen could be a better format for video game adaptations going forward. One of Prime Video’s most popular titles, Fallout, provides further evidence for this claim. One of the best video game shows ever made, Fallout benefits from its streaming format.

Fallout Season 2 Was Just As Good As The First Season

The Fallout series began way back in 197 with the original game Fallout, which went on to spawn three direct sequels and six spinoffs, including Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 76. A major hit with gamers, Fallout was immediately considered for a potential movie adaptation, resulting in various failed attempts to get a movie off the ground.

Between 1998 and 2016, no less than three different attempts to make a Fallout movie adaptation came and went, but it wasn’t until Prime Video purchased the live-action rights in 2020 that production finally began. Maintaining the canon of the games, Fallout follows Ella Purnell’s Vault 33 Dweller Lucy and Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul.

Stars like Moises Arias, Kyle MacLachlan, and Zach Cherry flesh out the supporting cast as Fallout tells the story of a post-apocalyptic alternate US history where the Great War of 2077 wiped out much of human civilization. Season 2 saw Clancy Brown, Macaulay Culkin, and Kumail Nanjiani join the show’s lineup, further elevating the show’s profile.

What Will Fallout Season 3 Be About?

Now that the overarching story of seasons 1 and 2 has reached a satisfying conclusion with Fallout season 2’s ending, season 2 will likely see Goggins’ Ghoul continue his search for his family by moving on to Colorado. Meanwhile, fractions in the Commonwealth Brotherhood of Steel are likely to cause more problems for Aaron Moten’s Maximus.

Quintus now has the blueprints for Liberty Prime, while Lucy knows that Hank is linked to The Enclave, whose foreboding Phase 2 plans may come to define her season 3 storyline. It is not yet clear whether The Ghoul’s pilgrimage in search of his family will cut him out of season 3’s plot, or if the show will follow him to Colorado.

Fallout Sets A High Standard For Video Game Shows

Regardless of this plot’s trajectory, one thing is for certain. Fallout has set a new high bar for adaptations of video games, particularly when the show arrived to near-universal acclaim so shortly before the disastrous failure of Eli Roth’s Borderlands movie in August 2024.

Another adaptation based on a series of darkly comic post-apocalyptic sci-fi games, Borderlands highlighted just how badly Fallout could have gone wrong, and made the success of the series even more starkly impressive in contrast. As such, regardless of where Fallout season 3’s plot goes, the show has already proven itself to be an all-time great video game adaptation.

Release Date

April 10, 2024

Network

Amazon Prime Video

Showrunner

Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan

Directors

Frederick E. O. Toye, Wayne Che Yip, Stephen Williams, Liz Friedlander, Jonathan Nolan, Daniel Gray Longino, Clare Kilner

Writers

Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan