Bethesda's Todd Howard Responds To Possibility Of Elder Scrolls TV Show Coming Next

Prime Video's Fallout TV series out now, and while it's only just debuted, many are wondering if Bethesda might elect to adapt another one of its franchises for TV. Bethesda boss Todd Howard told IGN that currently there is "nothing in the works" with regards to other Bethesda franchises being adapted for TV. He's taking a never-say-never approach for now, but don't your hold breath for an Elder Scrolls or Starfield TV series.

"Everybody asks, like, about Elder Scrolls, and I keep saying no also. And I would approach those--I'll probably say no. You never know if someone's gonna click," he said.

With the Fallout series, Howard said Bethesda agreed to work with Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy and their Kilter Films company because they thought they could do a "high-quality job."

"It wasn't forced. It was kind of a natural relationship and, 'Hey, this sounds really cool.' As opposed to, 'We should have a show,' right? It never came from that," Howard said.

Looking ahead, Howard said he cannot predict the future, so anything is theoretically possible when it comes to adapting other Bethesda franchises for TV. But right now, the focus is on Fallout and letting the show have its moment. "We're just kind of over the moon," he said.

Back in 2015, Bethesda discussed why it hadn't made a Fallout or Elder Scrolls movie, with former marketing boss Pete Hines saying the company shot down every pitch it received out of a concern for quality. "We spend so much time and energy having developers make the games represent their brands the way they want," Hines said. To then turn that over to someone else, letting go of creative control, could be a disaster, he explained. Time and again film companies promise total creative control of a project, but, "It has been proven true zero percent of the time," Hines said.

Bethesda's position seemingly changed for the Fallout TV series, as Howard and Nolan previously discussed how they hit it off from the first phone call. Part of what sold Howard on the idea of Nolan making a Fallout show was that the filmmaker is a huge fan of the game series.

"People have wanted to make a Fallout show ever since we did Fallout 3. I took a lot of meetings and had conversations. I was always sort of, 'Well, it's not really quite clicking for me,'" Howard said.

When Howard met Nolan, however, things changed. "Todd and I have had been fans of each other's work for many, many years," Nolan said.

For more, check out GameSpot's Fallout TV show review and what other critics think. All eight episodes in Season 1 are streaming now on Prime Video, and Season 2 is apparently in the works.