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Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer has given Amazon’s Fallout show the thumbs up, saying it’s one of the best video game adaptations ever seen on film or television.
Fallout Season 2 is set in New Vegas, which was the setting and title of Obsidian’s much-loved 2010 entry, Fallout: New Vegas. Sawyer was director and designer on that game, so he’s a great person to ask about Amazon’s adaptation. And that’s exactly what The 41st Precinct did in a new video interview about Sawyer’s career.
Responding, Sawyer was very enthusiastic, even though he has a few criticisms that he’s not even sure he would classify as actual criticisms.
“I think it’s an amazing adaptation,” Sawyer began. “Like, honestly. I know that the bar is not always very high for TV or film adaptations of video games, but I think it’s one of the best that I’ve seen, certainly.
“I guess I would say that there are sort of critiques or like personal things where I would say, ‘I don’t know if I would have taken the plot in that direction,’ or, ‘I don’t know if I would have done that with that character,’ but that’s like, any writer is going to look at something and be like, ‘I don’t know if I’d do that.’ I don’t think they’re like real criticisms.
“As far as how Mr. House was handled — I didn’t write Mr. House. I didn’t create Mr. House. That was [lead writer] John Gonzalez to be clear — I love Justin Theroux and I just love him in everything, and I think he was a great Mr. House, personally. I am very interested to see where it goes.”
Sawyer went on to touch on complaints some Fallout fans had with the accuracy of the show as it relates to the video games, although he insisted Amazon did a great job of it.
“I did get a chance to actually see the set in Season 2,” he revealed. “I got to see the vault and I got to see Freeside [a district of New Vegas in the Mojave Wasteland]. They look like the game. They look really, really close. I mean, the layout is not exactly the same. The same thing with Novac.”
At that point, Sawyer brought up complaints from some fans about the Dinky the T-Rex statue in the town of Novac. In Fallout: New Vegas, Dinky faces away from the town to act as a sniper perch. In the Fallout show, however, Amazon had it rotated 180 degrees to face towards the motel. While this change was made so protagonist Lucy could appear as a sniper and shoot enemies outside the motel in Season 2, Episode 1, some Fallout fans didn’t like that Dinky was, as they put it, facing the wrong way.
Sawyer, though, understood the change and said he wasn’t bothered by it, although he admitted he might have incurred the wrath of Fallout fans for saying so.
“I remember people were really upset that Dinky has turned around, and I’m like, personally… I get why people get upset about that, but also the scene wouldn’t work at all because it’s about Lucy firing into the thing or whatever.
“So I understand why they did it. I wasn’t personally really bent out of shape about it. Maybe people will say I’m a traitor to Fallout now or something! I thought it was a good representation of a lot of the iconic stuff that you see in it. I am very interested in where it’s going to go. I think it’s probably one of the best adaptations of a video game franchise I’ve seen to TV or film. And I’m looking forward to the next season.”
“What’s interesting though is the plot is like, yes, New Vegas was there, but it wasn’t about the plot of New Vegas,” Sawyer continued, as thoughts turn to Season 3. “It’s their own plot that they’re charting. Location-wise, I don’t know, but it’s clear that they have their own specific story that they’re telling through all of these areas.”
Warning! Spoilers for Fallout Season 2 finale follow…
Interestingly, the ending of Fallout Season 2 sets up Colorado as the location for Season 3, with The Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins, already on his way. The snowy peaks of post-apocalyptic Colorado have yet to be explored by the mainline Fallout video games, but it was the setting of a canceled version of Fallout 3, codenamed “Van Buren,” which Sawyer worked on as lead technical designer back at Black Isle Studios.
As a result, everything Season 3 brings to the table will feel brand new to Fallout fans, and we can expect a significant expansion of the Fallout canon. The Fallout TV show is set after all the games, but are within the Fallout timeline and are canon. So everything we see in the show continues the overarching Fallout storyline.
Bethesda chief Todd Howard recently said pre-production was underway on Season 3, which starts shooting this month in Los Angeles. Amazon has announced a number of actors joining the cast for Season 3, including Manny Jacinto from Star Wars show The Acolyte, Thomasin McKenzie from Jojo Rabbit, Emily Mortimer from The Newsroom, and Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul. Howard has described Paul as “a Fallout fan from way back.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
