Jonathan Nolan Compares Making Fallout To Making Batman

Amazon Prime Video's adaptation of the long-running Fallout video game franchise arrives in April, with a stellar cast that includes Yellowjackets standout Ella Purnell and character actor Walton Goggins.

While the Fallout TV show doesn't take its narrative from any particular installment of the franchise, the story will focus on the world at large. That decision allowed more freedom and has led executive producer Jonathan Nolan and the show's team to tell their own distinctive story in this world that fans can still easily recognize as the world of Fallout.

"From the first conversation with Todd [Howard, game director of Fallout 3 and 4, and executive producer on the show] we were most excited about an original story," Nolan tells Total Film.

Nolan then makes a comparison of using mythos to tell a focused story by saying working on Batman is very similar to nailing down the right story for the world of Fallout.

"Fallout, in my career, is closest to the work we did in adapting Batman, where there's so much storytelling in the Batman universe that there is no canonical version of it, so you're free to invent your own."

Nolan elaborates more on how each game works within its own story, but is part of a bigger narrative. "Each of the [Fallout] games is a discrete story--different city, distinct protagonist--within the same mythology. Our series sits in relation to the games as the games sit in relation to each other. It's almost like we're Fallout 5. I don't want to sound presumptuous, but it's just a non-interactive version of it, right?"

Fallout can hopefully continue with the trend last year that began with HBO's The Last of Us and show that video game adaptations can be something more.

Fallout premieres exclusively on Prime Video on April 12.