• The first image of the live-action Fallout TV series is here, teased by showrunner Amazon as part of the video game series’ 25th anniversary.
• The image reveals the inside of Vault 33 and could have some plot spoilers included for the eagle-eyed.
• Fallout is being helmed by the creators of Westworld and Lionsgate has joined as an executive producer.

The first official image of the live-action Fallout TV series produced by Amazon and Kilter Films has been teased by Prime Video’s Twitter account.

Congratulations and Happy 25th Birthday! We made something special for the occasion. #Fallout #Fallout25 @BethesdaStudios @Bethesda @Fallout @Kilter_Films pic.twitter.com/eFg7t5O8Wa

— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) October 25, 2022

The teaser image shows the huge door to Vault 33 swung open as a vault dweller equipped with a Pip-Boy and with what seems to be a weapon on their waist exits the underground shelter into the unforgiving light of the wasteland. Three other vault dwellers garbed in Vault 33 jumpsuits look on. Ominously, there also seems to be a body laying beside the open gateway.

Any fan of the post-nuclear roleplaying game series worth their salt should also be able to start piecing the set-up of the show together from these details. That is, of course, if this is indeed a still from the first episode.

The image was released today marking the 25th anniversary of the Fallout video game franchise, which first landed on PCs in 1997 with Interplay’s classic isometric RPG. In the Fallout universe, a nuclear war between the United States and China destroyed most of human civilisation in the year 2077.

Humanity was forced to survive in giant underground shelters known as vaults, built by a shady organisation known as Vault-Tec. It looks like the Amazon show will begin in Vault 33, which has not appeared in any of the Fallout games. Yet Variety reports that Vault 33 is located in San Diego, and is one of the “smaller” vaults with only six people allowed inside.

We’re not sure where Variety got this information from. As far as we can see Vault 33 only ever appears in the games as a player-made mod. The fact that only six people are allowed in the vault also doesn’t make sense, since the games take place hundreds of years after humans first entered the vaults since the surface only becomes somewhat habitable as radiation begins to clear.

Apart from Vault 33, we also know that the show will take viewers to a Super Duper Mart, according to pictures of a set snapped by Twitter user @QuietWriterLove.

I drove past the old Shop Rite on Hylan today and at the light thought “damn, that went downhill fast.” Turns out they’re filming the Fallout TV series there and it’s been purposefully decayed unlike every other strip mall on Staten Island. pic.twitter.com/yUjKSQF4at

— Dee (@QuietWriterLove) July 16, 2022

In-universe, Super Duper Mart is a grocery store chain inspired by the hyper-capitalistic American 1940s and 1950s. In the last two mainline Fallout games, developed by Bethesda Software, these stores have been locations of distinct shootouts with drug-addicted cannibals known as raiders and irradiated zombies called ghouls.

Amazon Prime have officially started filming the Fallout TV series staring Walton Goggins. pic.twitter.com/hKGRnJglKL

— XboxCore (@_XboxNews) July 18, 2022

While there has yet to be any information about the plot of the series revealed by Amazon, it will hopefully take inspiration from the games. In the first Fallout game, the protagonist must leave their shelter to find a machine that will fix the vault’s water purification plant. If they don’t return in time everyone they love dies of dehydration.

In Fallout 3, the protagonist has to leave their vault after breaking the laws set by the overseer of the vault. We can see either of these plot points being used to inspire the series. The latter of which seems likely to us, if the dead or dying person shown in the image is any indication.

Whichever way they go, the Fallout series is ample space to explore the human condition, religion, economic policies, inequality, race and just about any other interesting topic. Its genre can be action, horror, sci-fi and even comedy. It is a source material that is incredibly malleable.

Which is perfect for showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, which previously tackled another dystopian universe in HBO’s Westworld through their production company Kilter Films.

The Fallout TV series is also been developed in association with Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks, which own the Fallout IP. Todd Howard, Bethesda’s infamous game director, is an executive producer on the Amazon series. Lionsgate will also apparently aid in the show’s production.

Fallout for Amazon Prime will star The Righteous Gemstone’s Walton Goggins, as well as Ella Purnell, Kyle Maclachlan, Xelia Mendes-Jones and Aaron Moten.

[Image – Amazon]