Microsoft’s Xbox division was under no pressure to turn its video game franchise “Fallout” into a TV series. That’s one of the main reasons why the adaptation that premiered earlier this year on Amazon Prime Video has worked well for viewers and for dedicated fans of the game.
Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, and Jonah Nolan, executive producer and showrunner of the “Fallout” TV series, gave the backstory of how the TV series came to be during a discussion this week held as part of the Paley Center for Media’s International Council Summit in New York. Spencer and Nolan discussed the growing convergence of gaming IP with TV, film and other forms of media.
Spencer emphasized that the decision to seek a new iteration of “Fallout,” one of Xbox’s most popular properties, as a TV drama series was fueled in large part by the passion that Nolan expressed for the property. That was a big factor in giving the company and “Fallout” game creator Todd Howard the confidence that Nolan would respect and enhance the creative DNA of the game in a new medium. It also reflects a generational shift in Hollywood where top creatives and decision-makers now bring a natural familiarity with games to the table.
“We don’t have to do a television show or a movie for any of the individual properties, so it better be something that we do with someone we trust, with someone we think will raise the bar for what the franchise stands for,” Spencer said. “In a great outcome like this, where we get 100 million people watching the show, it also makes ‘Fallout’ something that matters more to more people.”
Nolan, a TV veteran whose past series including HBO’s “Westworld” and CBS’ “Person of Interest,” dove deep into the intricacies of adapting a video game with its extensive narrative threads and details for a different storytelling medium. He equated it to the approach that he took working with his brother, multihyphenate Christopher Nolan, on “The Dark Knight” Batman trilogy.
“From the perspective of a storyteller coming in to try to adapt it, it’s kind of wide open,” Nolan observed. “It was similar to our experience on the Batman movies. There had been so many different versions of Batman that you had an invitation to say ‘Well, you gotta make it your own.’ … And with all the extraordinary choices in the ‘Fallout’ games for us the fact that each game in the franchise had a different setting, a different story a different set of characters and they all connected to each other. For us, this larger mythos was an incredible opportunity for an adaptation.”
Nolan said he pursued Howard, who developed the game through Microsoft’s Bethesda Games, for some years. Finally, he got a call back. Nolan and Howard hit it off right away. Season 1 of “Fallout” went on to be a massive hit for Amazon Prime Video, as well as grabbing some 16 Emmy nominations including a bid for best drama series.
“About half of career has been original work in film and TV, and half of it has been adaptations. And I used to joke that my favorite adaptations were dead authors, because dead authors don’t have a lot of notes,” Nolan said. Nolan’s personal familiarity with the game made a huge difference.
“The thing about games is you can’t watch a cut down. You can’t watch a YouTube compilation of cut scenes and get a sense for what the game really is,” Nolan said. “You have to be inside it.”
Nolan’s embrace of Howard as a key voice throughout the process also gave Microsoft a level of comfort. “Fallout” came together as HBO was notching a big win with Season 1 of “The Last of Us,” also a drama series based on a game franchise. In both cases, the adaptations were well received by fans in part because the game creators had a voice and a say in the creatives who took the reins for TV.
“It was critical early on to have that creative trust so that our game teams could both understand what they brought to the equation in terms of the world, the setting, some of the camp humor, but also be willing to step back and let another very talented creator take the reins in a medium that we don’t have an expertise in,” Spencer said. “Anytime we try to do something new it should be advancing what that world is. One thing I really loved about the television show is it made the somewhat quirky world of ‘Fallout’ more accessible to more people.”
On that note, Spencer and Nolan discussed the importance of engaging with fans and social media creators in the franchise to help extend its reach. That means giving up a measure of control over the IP and allow individuals to use it as a vehicle to express their creativity.
“We live in a world where if you’re really successful, you will have more people outside of your own creative process that love the franchises that you build,” Spencer said. “And there’s a liberty that you have to give it to the community to take it and run with it. It’s important to understand how much that will advance everybody’s interests.”
In that spirt, Spencer was asked by an audience member at the International Council Summit if Microsoft would be up for another iteration of its game franchise “Halo” on TV. Showtime launched a TV series based on the property in 2022 that has had mixed response from fans of the enduring game. He indicated that his is answer is a qualified yes.
“As an old video game builder, for the longest time I’d say we had some envy of Hollywood and the creation process,” Spencer said. “I see it now as more of a collaborative process than it was historically, between the video game world and television and movies. Finding the right partnership and doing new things is what this job is about.”
(Pictured: Phil Spencer, Jonah Nolan)
