Part of the fun of Fallout as a fan is sitting down and delving into an alternate reality world of American history. Bethesda’s Lore Master has mapped out the entire event into canon, from the liberation of Alaska from the Chinese government to his post-2072 retrieval of the Teddy Fear Bear.
Until recently, this alternate history existed primarily through the many Fallout video games developed by studios such as Interplay Entertainment, Black Isle, Bethesda, and Obsidian. But with new shows now available to stream on Prime Video, a new entry has been added to the canon. IGN interviewed Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard and Fallout: The Series co-creator Jonathan Nolan about how the new show fits into Fallout’s epic timeline, so I we know this.
Spoilers for the ending of Fallout Season 1 and details for all Fallout games below.
How does the Fallout show fit into the overall timeline?
Officially, the Fallout drama is set in the year 2296, a later time period than other currently released Fallout games. For example, Fallout 4 is set in his year 2287, while Fallout: New Vegas is set in his year 2281, a full 15 years before the events of the show.
The showrunners and Howard have previously confirmed that the show will exist within the game’s canon, meaning that events in the show will have a major lore impact on the series. The biggest one is probably the fate of Shady Sands, the first capital of the Republic of New California and an important location in the Fallout video games. In the final episode of the first season, it is revealed that Shady Sands has been destroyed by Hank MacLean, the supervisor of Vault 33 and a secret agent of his Vault-Tec.
Shady Sands appears in the first Fallout video game, set in 2161, and is referenced again in Fallout: New Vegas, set in 2281. However, the Fallout show takes place in the year 2296, 15 years after the events of New Vegas. A lot can change in that time.
According to Howard, showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet approached him with the idea of blowing up Shady Sands, and Howard was initially shocked. However, this event served as a catalyst for the show’s main characters in Fallout, and the showrunners worked with Howard and the team at Bethesda to ensure that it remained consistent with the game.
“And we talked about it and we were like, ‘This is going to be a pretty impactful story moment that anchors a lot of things,'” Howard says.
But for those who are confused about how the city will be blown up by the time the show takes place, Howard explains that all the details of the timeline have to match. “We’re careful about schedules,” he says. “There might be a little bit of confusion in some places. But everything that happened in the previous games happened, including New Vegas. We’re being very careful about that.”
“All I can say is we’re dealing more closely there, but the bomb dropped right after the events of New Vegas.”
How Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan agreed on the Fallout timeline
Howard said that when Bethesda first started talking with Jonathan Nolan about the possibility of making Fallout into TV, Howard said, “I’m going to rehash one of the games we’ve made and make it the same as ours.” He revealed that he wanted something that would function as a separate entry in the series, rather than treating it as such. Play the game, progress through the timeline, and accomplish amazing things.that is [Nolan] I was also thinking. ”
Nolan added that the show was set up to respect the meticulously detailed timeline set by Bethesda, and that creating a show that had nothing to do with games was hardly a start. Ta. We are very careful to maintain this consistent world. If we had gone in a different direction, the only thing that didn’t fit into that world would have been the show…We didn’t want to be in another world or our own private corner of another world. “I don’t think it means much to me watching this series to know that it’s completely removed from the reality of the game,” Nolan admitted.
What is the complete Fallout timeline (so far)?
Now we know that the Fallout show is indeed canon and matches the timeline set by the game. Here are the major events that defined the Fallout franchise from the first game to the show.
Bomb Drop – Year: 2077
While the entire history of Fallout takes place in an alternate history where the Cold War unfolds dramatically differently than in our reality, the key moment that kicks off the series is set on October 23, 2077. It is the beginning of World War I. When the US-China war reached its climax, all countries involved in the conflict were drawn into nuclear war, turning the US and the rest of the world into the fallout wasteland we know and love(?) .
This event appears both in the Fallout show, where Walton Goggins’ character Howard Cooper and his daughter try to escape a nuclear explosion in Los Angeles, and in the opening moments of Fallout 4, where the sole survivor and his family make their way. You can see. Infiltrated Vault 111 just before the bombs hit New England.
Fallout 76 – Year: 2102
Fallout 76 begins on October 23, 2102, or Settlement Day as it is known. Twenty-five years after he dropped the bomb during World War I, Fallout 76 was the earliest game in the series, with Howard even calling it a “prequel” to the other games. .
In the former state of West Virginia, now known simply as Appalachia, the game revolves around a Vault Dweller from Vault 76 who sets out to find his missing Overseer. Fallout 76’s version of the Wasteland is especially harsh considering it’s been a long time since the bombs dropped, and many of the series’ hallmarks, such as the Brotherhood of Steel and mutations, have their origins explored here.
Fallout 1 – Year: 2161
The very first Fallout game is actually the second game in the timeline. Set 84 years after World War I, Fallout begins in Vault 13 in Southern California, near the Shady Sands and Vault 33 in the show.
The first Fallout Vault Dweller is given the simple task of finding a new water chip for the Vault before the Vault’s supply of clean water runs out. However, during the course of this adventure, they encounter the Master and his army of mutants who seek to mutate the humans under his control.
Fallout Tactics – Year: 2197
Fallout Tactics tells you the origins of the Brotherhood of Steel, one of the wasteland’s longest-running factions. When World War I broke out, a group of military personnel were trapped in his Vault-Tec Vault along with a group of scientists. However, when a military unit discovers the scientists’ immoral experiments, they desert the army, kill the scientists, and together form the Brotherhood of Steel.
The Brotherhood’s tactics to claim territory outside of Old Chicago ultimately lead to a journey westward to find the rumored Vault 0, which houses the United States’ most important government, military, and scientific leaders. will be taken to.
Fallout 2 – Year: 2241
In Fallout 2, a direct sequel to the events of Fallout 1, the direct descendants of the Vault Dwellers from Vault 13 are exiled and start the village of Arroyo in the Wasteland. Fallout 2 tracks the rise of the New California Republic and the organization known as the Enclave, which claims to be the true successor of the United States. The Enclave appears briefly in the Fallout show as an organization that scientist Sigi Wilzig escapes from in a cold fusion reactor.
Fallout 3 – Year: 2277
Set on the East Coast near the old Washington DC, Fallout 3 takes place in Vault 101 and initially revolves around the vault dweller’s search for his missing father. As you adventure through the D.C. area, you uncover a larger conspiracy revolving around a mysterious project to purify the Potomac River’s drinking water, as well as a conflict with Fallout 2’s Enclave.
Fallout: New Vegas – Year: 2281
Set once again on the West Coast, Fallout: New Vegas stars, as you might expect, a delivery man tasked with delivering a package to New Vegas, the post-nuclear successor city of Las Vegas, Nevada. However, Courier becomes caught up in a local factional war between the New California Republic and the criminal organization Great Khans, which threatens to destabilize the entire region.
And Howard told IGN that Shady Sands will be destroyed at some point after the events of Fallout: New Vegas.
Fallout 4 – Year: 2287
Fallout 4 is set in a region known as the Commonwealth, which covers much of pre-war New England, and tells the story of the sole survivor of Vault 111 as he sets out to find his missing spouse and baby. Along the way, players will encounter new factions like the Minutemen and the Institute, as well as familiar Wasteland staples like the Brotherhood of Steel.
The main focus of Fallout 4 is a new technology called Synths. Synths are human-like machines that have acquired sentient powers, presumably after being created many generations after World War I.
Fallout TV Show – Year: 2296
Finally, let’s talk about the events of Fallout: The Series. Similar to the plot of Fallout 3, Prime Video’s Fallout show follows Lucy MacLean as she sets out from her Vault 33 into the wasteland to search for her kidnapped father, Director Hank MacLean. Masu. However, as the series continues, we learn not only the truth behind the events leading up to World War I in 2077, but also what happened to the city of Shady Sands and her original Vault-Tec. Masu.
This is the complete timeline of Fallout from both the game and the show, as confirmed by Todd Howard. Fallout 5 has already been determined as the game that Howard and Bethesda ultimately want to make, but no one knows where the future of the series will go. Especially if Prime Video greenlights a second season of Fallout: The Series.
For more on the expansive Fallout Wasteland, check out the full interview with IGN’s Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan.
Matt TM Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.you can contact him @lawoftd.
