While we won’t know if Amazon’s Fallout will live up to the games until it releases, at least one aspect will be faithfully recreated on screen.
Series co-creator Jonathan Nolan, most well-known for being Christopher Nolan’s brother, confirmed that the first episode will entirely consist of character creation. From appearance to stats, the episode will be exclusively dedicated to the customization of the protagonist Lucy played by Ella Purnell.
“It’s hard to adapt popular series like Fallout because the fans are so passionate. They demand that you adhere to what they know. No one wants to see their favorite character shagging the enemy as they say,” explained Nolan. “So we knew we had to assure people right from the jump that it would be faithful to their experience with Fallout.”
“There’s a bit of backstory in the intro but after that, the rest of the premiere episode is devoted to the creation of the protagonist,” continued Nolan. “We painstakingly go through every single facial feature, hairstyle, eye color, and so on. Then of course the stats and the dramatic moment of going back to re-edit. We know the fans will love their gameplay experience replicated.”
Actress Ella Purnell initially had reservations about the concept.
“I was worried I’d get replaced ’cause they’d get to my face but then go back to previous ones. But after learning more about the series I get it and think fans will be pleased.”
Bethesda Game Director Todd Howard is excited for fans to see the series.
“Fallout fans are very important to us at Bethesda and since this will be the only new Fallout they’re gonna get for the next decade we knew we had to win them over immediately. Every player has such a different experience that it’s hard to adapt that to the screen but the one thing every player does the same is wasting exuberant amounts of time in the character creator.”
“According to our data, in an average sixty-hour playthrough approximately one-third of that is spent on the character creation screen. When we told Jonathan he immediately scrapped his whole script to incorporate that into the show. It was really wonderful to see a big Hollywood creator embrace the essence of our game.”
As of press time, Amazon and Bethesda are reported to be wondering if they should start over and make a different main character instead.