Despite being one of the most successful projects of Bethesda, Fallout hasn’t yet made its debut on the silverscreen through a movie.

fallout

When we talk about the best RPG franchises of all time, we can never go past Fallout. Started in 1997, this popular series Bethesda has made a huge fanbase with 5 installments and many spin-off titles. This franchise is set in the first half of the third millennium, and the post-war American culture of the 1950s has influenced both the artwork and the Atompunk retrofuturistic setting.

An in-game screenshot from Fallout 4.Fallout 4 is the latest installment in the series. | Credit: Bethesda.

All of the titles of this franchise (except Fallout 76) were hugely successful and blockbusters in terms of revenue generation. Because of this massive success, a shout for the live-action adaptation of the game was inevitable. As a consequence, a TV series based on the franchise was released this year on Amazon Prime. But why hasn’t been any movie made on this long-hailed franchise?

Bethesda Boss Clearly Sums Up the Reason for Rejecting Fallout Movie Offers

An image of Todd Howard.Todd Howard had a solid reason behind denying Fallout movie offers. | Credit: Todd Howard by
Gamelab Congreso Videojuegos, via Flickr, PDM 1.0.

Despite numerous approaches and meetings to discuss the idea, Bethesda, the publisher of Fallout, has not yet agreed to produce a film based on the post-apocalyptic series. But why?

Bethesda Boss Todd Howard has the answer. In an interview with GamesIndustry.Biz in 2016, Howard revealed that Fallout‘s overall “identity” could be impacted by a movie deal. This is what he stated about rejecting the offers:

We’ve had a couple of in-roads, particularly with Fallout, which is a bit stickier than Elder Scrolls, but everybody’s kind of asked and I’ve taken a number of meetings over the years and nothing quite clicked where I felt, ‘Oh, that would be as good as the game.’ And that may happen. I don’t rule it out, but nothing really has clicked where — the games are popular enough and that’s their identity.

Howard again went on to explain that either the movie or the game was going to fail miserably to carry forward the legacy of the franchise because it wouldn’t be possible for the company to keep an eye on both with the same importance. And people would never want that to be the game, where the movie takes another direction. This decision from Howard clearly sums up why the man himself is a legend.

Will Fallout Never Have a Movie?

The cover image of Fallout TV series.There is a TV series based on Fallout. | Credit: Amazon Prime.

Fans may be pleased to hear that Howard stated Bethesda would apply its renowned attention to detail to the project, assuming a Fallout movie is made—though he is not ruling that out. Howard stated that they would emphasize little details like even the look of the vault suit and that is because of the “high bar” of the company.

Howard’s remarks come after Bethesda marketing executive Pete Hines stated in 2015 that the company has been contacted “for a long time” about possible Elder Scrolls and Fallout films (via GameSpot).

According to Howard, Bethesda has a “really good window” into the film and TV markets through movie legend Jerry Bruckheimer and CBS president Leslie Moonves, even though the company has no immediate plans to bring its franchises to the big screen. Together with former MGM CEO Harry Sloan and Hollywood legal expert Ernest Dell, they are both members of Bethesda’s board of directors.