TAGGED AS: Prime Video, Sci-Fi, streaming, Video Games
[Warning: Spoilers for Fallout: Season 1 Follow]
Prime Video’s Fallout series joins the pantheon of great video game adaptations that not only capture the essence of the original but expand their worlds, introducing new stories and characters. It comes on the heels of successful adaptations like The Last of Us, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and Arcane. Part of what the show does right is that it doesn’t just adapt one specific game, but instead tells an original story set in the world of the games, pulling elements, characters, and locations from them.
The first season followed three storylines, namely Vault-dweller Lucy’s (Ella Purnell) search for her father, Maximus (Aaron Moten) and his attempt to prove himself to the Brotherhood of Steel, and The Ghoul’s (Walton Goggins) quest for a big bounty. The three intersected at the very end of the season during a battle between the Brotherhood and the New California Republic, which sought to restore light to the wasteland and create a new society. The Brotherhood won and took over, while Lucy and The Ghoul walked out into the wasteland in search of her father and some answers.
While we wait for Fallout to return for season 2, we have a wish list for what we want to see once we return to the wasteland. Though there is no singular source material to serve as a precise blueprint for what will happen, there are plenty of hints in the finale and in the games. So get your pip boy ready and watch out for radroaches, because we’ll explore what we can expect from Fallout: Season 2.
(Photo by Prime Video)
The first season took place in the greater Los Angeles area, with Lucy starting out in Santa Monica and eventually making it to Hollywood and beyond. But the finale gave us a big hint as to where the show will head next, and it’s a bright light city that’s gonna set your soul on fire. That’s right, we’re headed to Vegas! Specifically, New Vegas.
New Vegas was introduced in Fallout: New Vegas, a 2010 spin-off game where the player encounters a brand new city built on the ruins of Las Vegas, a flourishing civilization that’s, well, just what you’d expect from a retrofuturistic Vegas: equally as bright, full of vice, and fun, but with a mutated spin. Given that the live-action Fallout is set about a decade after the events of the games, and the New California Republic isn’t what it used to be, it is safe to assume New Vegas has changed. More importantly, New Vegas would add something unique to the show and the post-apocalyptic setting.
One great element of the games is that they are post-post-apocalypse, meaning society is starting to rebuild in different ways — which separates this world from similar post-apocalypses. Making New Vegas a bustling city as opposed to just a settlement is an exciting idea, one that’s prime for plenty of stories in season 2.
(Photo by JoJo Whilden/Prime Video)
The first season introduced us to the Brotherhood of Steel, to the raiders, the NCR, the Enclave, and the settlement of Filly. The games are full of dozens upon dozens of factions as weird as anything in the wasteland — like the Republic of Dave (previously the Kingdom of Tom and Billsylvania), and The Boomers.
The first season didn’t get to devote much time to the intricacies of the factions, but now that introductions are out of the way, season 2 can spend more time on these. In particular, season 2 will likely spend more time with the Enclave, the faction that kickstarts the plot when a scientist escapes from their headquarters with an important artifact. The Enclave is the remnants of the pre-war deep state government, now turned into a paramilitary organization. After the first season showed us a conspiracy of corporations, it would be thrilling to see their ties to the government in season 2. Additionally, there’s Caesar’s Legion, a big, fascistic faction in Fallout: New Vegas that was at war with the NCR. Given how the NCR has shrunk by the time of the TV series, it is possible Caesar’s Legion has grown bigger and more dangerous.
But Fallout season 2 shouldn’t just focus on one or two big organizations. The beauty of the franchise is that it is filled with small settlements and groups, and hopefully the show will give us more of this.
(Photo by Prime Video)
The world of Fallout is filled with wonderful, strange, terrifying, ugly creatures that have made the wasteland their home. Among them, the Deathclaw reigns supreme. Originally a genetically engineered creature developed by the U.S. military to replace humans in close-combat warfare, they colonized much of the wasteland in the aftermath of nuclear armageddon. They are evil, scary, and very cool, a mix between a T-Rex and a demon.
Season 1 ended with a shot of a Deathclaw skull, so it is possible we’ll see a living one, and we should, but it shouldn’t be the only creature we see. The first season introduced us to the radroach, the yao guai, and the horrible finger-toothed axolotl, but Fallout has so many more creatures to populate the wasteland, and we should see more! This is part of what makes the series unique and special. The Last of Us has different types of zombies, but it doesn’t have mutant creatures as varied as the bloatfly or the mirelurk, and that’s not counting the many robots players encounter in the Fallout games.
(Photo by Prime Video)
In Fallout: New Vegas, Mr. House is the ruler of the titular city, a man from pre-war times whose body is cryogenically frozen but whose brain is connected to a computer that manifests his consciousness. He’s also a memorable antagonist (unless you choose to side with him).
In the Prime Video series, we see Mr. House in a flashback in the season 1 finale. Given that we know there are people from pre-war times that survived the apocalypse, it’s possible Mr. House will show up — and probably not just as a brain on a Roomba. Seeing House, an old competitor of Vault-Tec, show up could cause plenty of interesting conflicts in the next season.
(Photo by Prime Video)
Since Fallout season 1 wasn’t a straight remake or adaptation of any one game in the series, it’s unlikely that season 2 will break from that and give us a 1-to-1 copy of one of the games. That being said, if you’re curious about what comes next, or you simply want to experience the wasteland yourself as you wait for the return of the show, there is one specific game you need to play — Fallout: New Vegas.
Whereas Fallout 3 moved the action to DC, the New Vegas spin-off moved the franchise back to where it began — the West Coast. In the game, the player is tasked with transporting a package to New Vegas before you are robbed and left for dead. From there you encounter warring factions and get involved in a conflict for control of the city and the Mojave wasteland.
Since the Fallout TV show is set a decade after the events of the game, it’s unlikely we’ll see much crossover with the actual plot of the game. However, we might get a canonical ending to the game and the conflict, showing us who came out on top and what exactly happened to the city, as well as bringing back characters like Mr. House and factions like Caesar’s Legion (if they’re still around). New Vegas is one of the most beloved entries in the series, and there is plenty to mine from in a second season of Fallout.
Fallout: Season 1 (2024) is currently streaming on Prime Video.
