Director Jonah Nolan and actor Michael Emerson discuss Fallout Easter eggs and entering the world of Fallout in Prime Video’s new series.
The new Fallout series is based on the fan favorite video games, which can be a daunting task. Thankfully the creatives behind the series did a wonderful job of bringing the games to life and keeping the bonkers feel of the games. Set in a post apocolyptic world, this series follows different factions as they explore the new world more than 200 years after a series of nuclear bombs went off.
We spoke with Director Jonah Nolan and star Micheal Emerson about the new Prime Video series. They discuss stepping into the world of Fallout and the junkyard they found to portray the town of Filly.
Jonah Nolan and Michael Emerson Talk Fallout
Tessa Smith: I know that you have played the Fallout games Jonah, but have you ever played them Michael?
Michael Emerson: No, I’ve never been a video game player. So it’s completely outside my purview.
Jonah Nolan: We’re gonna have to get you a console.
Michael Emerson: Yeah, I’m gonna have to get one.
Tessa Smith: What was it like walking on the set Michael? Because it is so massive.
Michael Emerson: It was stunning. Both the built sets and the found sets and the locations. Just desert and sky. They were all majestic in their own way. But to me maybe the most stunning was this vast junkyard that they found way down in South Jersey, or outside Trenton somewhere, that they made into the Filly town. Whoever thought there was a junkyard that was as big as a town and had parts of buses and jet aircraft and stuff just in heaps?
Jonah Nolan: All we had to add was the dead iguanas.
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Tessa Smith: Jonah, as a game player, was there something you were most excited to put in here because it’s filled with Easter eggs from the game.
Jonah Nolan: I think I’m most excited about the power armor. That’s been the cover of every every game. It was my first – I remember knowing nothing about Fallout when I bought the game because someone said that it was great. That’s all I knew. And just looking at that helmet on the cover and putting it in. When we came to it, we knew from the beginning that we didn’t want to do it in CG. So we started on it about six months before we started shooting. We cast Adam Shippey, who’s a stunt performer who’s in the body armor every sequence. Incredible, incredible actor and performer and built a suit around him with Bethesda and Paul Howard’s input. Made a couple of little modifications here and there. But I’m very proud of the way that turned out.
Tessa Smith: I was going to ask you if you put it on, but if it was built for someone else, did it fit?
Jonah Nolan: Adam is a little bit taller than I am but the proportions are right. We were a little too busy. I’m gonna have to get around to putting that suit on at some point. So maybe for Halloween.
Tessa Smith: I have got to talk to you about capturing the feel of Fallout, because it is a bonkers game.
Jonah Nolan: I think for us that the adaptation is about capturing the essence of the game, especially with a set of games that are open world. In role playing games like these where your version of playing New Vegas would be very different than mine. You can play as a good guy, you can play as a bad guy, or somewhere in between. The beauty of these games, in some ways, is that there is no one story that you’re playing. You have your own story. So when it came time to adapt them, I think the thing that was most exciting in the very first conversation with Todd Howard, when we sat down together and it was was the invitation to create our own story that, as with each of the games in the franchise, has a new setting, a new set of characters, but connects to this larger mythos of the Fallout universe.
Tessa Smith: I was at that special screening and Jonah, you mentioned that this was one of two video games you would adapt. I’ve got to know what the other one is.
Jonah Nolan: I can’t tell just in case there’s an opportunity somewhere down a little bit. I’m all in on Fallout at this point. It’s such a privilege to be able to work on something that you love so much. And so I feel very, very lucky.
Tessa Smith: Michael, you’re phenomenal. I can’t talk too much about your character for fear of spoilers, but you’re incredible.
Michael Emerson: Thank you.
Tessa Smith: Thank you both so much for your time and I can’t wait to see the rest of the season.
Jonah Nolan: Thank you. Take care.
All episodes of Fallout Season 1 arrive April 11 on Prime Video.
NEXT: Ella Purnell & Aaron Moten Talk Fallout: Challenges & Fun On Set
About Fallout
Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird and highly violent universe waiting for them.
From executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the creators of Westworld, starring Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Walton Goggins and more.
All episodes of Fallout Season 1 arrive April 11 on Prime Video.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. She is also a Freelance Writer. Tessa has been in the Entertainment writing business for ten years and is a member of several Critics Associations including the Critics Choice Association and the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association.