Fallout TV show release date, cast, story, and everything you need to know

The Fallout TV Show is now just weeks away, with the upcoming TV show set to depict the Wasteland like you’ve never seen it before. Inspired by the best Fallout games (and set in the same shared universe), the Fallout TV series is being made in collaboration between Amazon Prime Video and Bethesda Game Studios, tracking Ella Purnell’s Lucy as she leaves the safety of a Vault to explore a devastated Los Angeles. 

What Lucy will discover in The City of Angels is anybody’s guess, but the first Fallout TV show trailers showcase a wild adventure, packed with plenty of iconography which will delight series fans and intrigue any of you who have never sat down with any of the games before. Following the success of HBO’s The Last of Us TV show, the pressure is certainly on to deliver a faithful adaptation of the post-apocalyptic world, but everything we have seen so far has been promising. Below you’ll find details on the setting, story, and cast of the new Fallout Amazon Prime show, as well exclusive images and the first trailers ahead of the Fallout season one premiere this April. 

Fallout TV show release date

(Image credit: Prime Video)

The Fallout TV show release date has been set for April 11. A 2024 window was teased back in August, following an exclusive first look at the series given to Gamescom 2023 attendees. The show was then dated on March 7 alongside the release of the first trailer, with Amazon confirming that all eight episodes of the Fallout TV series would land on Prime Video on April 11. 

Fallout TV show release schedule

(Image credit: Prime Video)

With the premiere locked in for April 11, you may be wondering when and where you can watch the Fallout TV show. Typically, Prime Video tends to stagger episodes of its biggest shows – with new installments landing weekly, rather than all at once, as is the case with the best Netflix shows. Amazon is going in a different direction with the Fallout TV show release schedule, opting instead to drop all eight episodes on April 11. The distributor is yet to confirm the episode titles just yet, but we do know that Westworld writer Jonathan Nolan will direct the first three. 

Fallout TV Show trailer

The Fallout TV show trailer has us exceptionally excited about this adaptation. We’ve been feeling that way since Prime Video pushed a teaser out at CCXP last December, and our hype was pushed into overdrive when the first full Fallout show trailer landed on March 7. In it, we got a fresh look at the post-apocalyptic LA setting, the faithful recreation of in-game elements like the Brotherhood of Steel and the Vaults, and deeper dives into characters like Walton Goggin’s Ghoul. Watch the Fallout TV show trailer above to see why we’re getting so excited. 

Fallout TV Show cast

(Image credit: Prime Video)

The Fallout TV show cast is coming together, although there are still some big unanswered questions. Below you’ll find a list of the actors who have confirmed roles in the Prime Video production, with Yellowjackets regular Ella Purnell and Justified star Walton Goggins taking the lead alongside performances from heavyweights like Twin Peaks’ Kyle MacLachlan. We know that actors like Chris Parnell (30 Rock), Leslie Uggams (Empire), and Zach Cherry (Severance) will appear, but haven’t yet had their roles detailed in the Fallout TV show cast list – we’ll update this once we know more. 

Ella Purnell – LucyWalton Goggins – The Ghoul / Cooper HowardKyle MacLachlan – HankMike Doyle – Mr. SpencerMatt Berry – Mr. HandyMoisés Arias – NormJohnny Pemberton – ThaddeusCherien Dabis – BirdieDale Dickey – Ma JuneMatty Cardarople – HueyMichael Emerson – WilzigDave Register – ChetRodrigo Luzzi – RegAnnabel O’Hagan – Steph

Fallout TV show plot

(Image credit: Prime Video)

The broader strokes of the Fallout TV show plot should be pretty familiar to any of you who have played the video games. But for those of you who are new to the concept, let’s run over the basics: Before the world is consumed by nuclear annihilation, certain members of society are selected to take refuge in experimental fallout bunkers built to preserve humanity known as Vaults. The show follows Lucy, a resident of Vault 33, who leaves behind the only life she has ever known to explore an irradiated Los Angeles in an effort to rescue her father, Hank. Out there in the wilds, she’ll need to survive a strange and lawless land, one beset with strange characters, dangerous bandits, and mutated creatures – oh, and contend with the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) a mysterious bounty hunter who holds within him a 200-year history of the Wasteland. 

Fallout TV show setting

(Image credit: Prime Video)

The Fallout TV show is expected to take place in 2296, some 219 years after the Great War of 2077 ended in nuclear annihilation, with the vast majority of humanity succumbing to the fallout. The Fallout TV show setting is expected to draw from two key locations: Vault 33 and the irradiated Wasteland of Los Angeles. Little is known about either of these areas, but it is expected that some time will be spent dwelling below the surface – exploring Lucy’s life behind the safety of the Vault’s locked door, and her relationship with her father, Hank, who also serves as the Vault’s Overseer. 

In the video games, some of the Vaults are actually long-running social experiments, but there’s no word yet on whether Lucy has been subjected to something similar. Out in the LA wasteland, we’ll be heading to Western-inspired towns maintained by unlikely survivors, strongholds for key factions like the Brotherhood of Steel, and into areas controlled by Ghouls, Mutants, malfunctioning robots, and deadly irradiated creatures – some of which you may recognize from the videos games.

Is the Fallout TV show Fallout 5?

(Image credit: Prime Video/Total Film)

Everything in the Fallout TV show is canon, according to Bethesda creative director Todd Howard (who is also serving as an executive producer of the show). However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that this is Fallout 5 in all but name. We know that the next game in the series is in the earliest stages of pre-production, expected to enter development following the release of The Elder Scrolls 6, but Howard has stepped in to ensure that some of Fallout 5’s big creative concepts don’t appear in the show.

Executive producer Jonathan Nolan (best known for penning the screenplays for some of the best Christopher Nolan movies like The Prestige and The Dark Knight) told our friends at Total Film that the goal has always been to create an “original story” that can fit into the wider Fallout timeline, with producer Lisa Joy telling SFX that the team”felt like that would be the best thing to honor the gamer’s experiences, and the most truthful.” So if you’re wondering why the Fallout TV show isn’t a direct sequel to Fallout 4, or a direct adaptation of something like Fallout 3, now you have your answer!!

(Image credit: Prime Video)

Will there be a Fallout season two?

As excited as we are for the Fallout TV show, a second season is yet to be confirmed. Season one will run for eight episodes, and the series’ co-writer says there’s plenty more that can be explored. Graham Wagner says that “there’s piles and piles of stuff we want to do,” although it’s likely that the Fallout TV show will need to be received well by folks in and outside of the Fallout fanbase if more is to be made in the future.  

While you wait for Fallout season one, why not check out one of the best shows on Amazon Prime Video.