Todd Howard Thinks “Fallout” Would Feel “Too Squeezed” as a Film

Bethesda’s Todd Howard recently revealed why Fallout was adapted as a television series rather than a movie.

Howard’s comments were part of a bigger report from Variety about the process of video game adaptations. In it, Howard explains that a movie version of Fallout would’ve felt “too compressed” as the game series has such a vast and interesting world.

“Originally, a lot of people were approaching to do a feature film. And looking at what we wanted to do for this one, that felt too compressed. Fallout is such an amazing world–what would we really want to watch in it? Well, we’d like to watch the next story, or new stories in that world, as opposed to, again, in this instance, adapting a story we had told and kind of compressing it down. For this one, we were very much interested in telling new stories,” Howard explained.

That approach worked out for Bethesda and Amazon, as Fallout was well-received and enjoyed by fans. Now, a second season is in the works. Todd Howard also teased a little about making sure that Fallout feels as welcoming as possible to players by the time the show’s second season comes out.

“So we had done the work for Season 1 to really make the games welcoming to a new audience and have them in a good place. And it was hugely successful. We learned a lot and as we head into future things — knowing when a new season comes out that there’s going to be an audience, both a new one and a returning one to these games — we’re thinking, how do we make it the best it can be for the players?”

Todd Howard has previously teased Fallout 5, but also admitted that Bethesda Game Studios’ focus right now is on continuing development of The Elder Scrolls VI. Remasters or updates for live service games in the series like Fallout 76 and Fallout Shelter feel like possibilities, though.

Fallout’s second season does not have a release window, but the first season is currently available to stream on Prime Video. When it comes to video game TV shows coming out more imminently, an animated Devil May Cry adaptation just released on Netflix, and the second season of The Last of Us begins on HBO later in the month.