Filmmaker and fan Jonathan Nolan brings ‘Fallout’ games to TV

LONDON—Filmmaker Jonathan Nolan says he was both nervous and excited to adapt the popular postapocalyptic video game series “Fallout” for television.

“[It was] intimidating, honestly, and the reason why is that I had played the games and loved them,” Nolan said as he premiered the new TV show in London on Thursday.

The eight-episode live-action show comes from husband-and-wife duo Nolan and Lisa Joy, who previously created the hit series “Westworld,” and centers on three main characters; vault dweller Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), Maximus, a member of the Brotherhood of Steel (Aaron Moten) and mutated bounty hunter The Ghoul (Walton Goggins).

Nuclear armageddon

Set in the wasteland of Los Angeles some 200 years after a nuclear armageddon, it sees Lucy resurfacing from the vaults from the first time in her life and leaning on her skills, wits and values to survive in a world very different from hers. Traversing the hostile terrain in search of her father (Kyle MacLachlan), Lucy crosses paths with Maximus and The Ghoul, each on a mission of their own.

Nolan, who cowrote several of his brother Christopher Nolan’s films, including “Interstellar” and “The Dark Knight,” also directed the show’s first three episodes. “It’s very similar to the games in the sense that each game in the franchise connects to this larger universe, but each game has a new setting, a new set of characters and a new story. And just like that, our series is a new story with new characters, but set in this larger universe,” Nolan, 47, said.

“For myself, the fun of it was having loved the games and being passionate about them, I was excited to try to bring reality in terms of large on-location impactful photography and building all the creatures, building all the stunts, the power armor … It was just like being a kid in a candy shop.”

“Fallout” starts streaming on Prime Video on April 11. —Reuters