Over the last year, we’ve gotten two magnificent video game adaptations – The Last of Us and Fallout . In 2023, we were blown away by The Last of Us , and then, Fallout premiered on the 2024 TV schedule , and it was met with acclaim too. Now, Jonathan Nolan , one of the masterminds behind what is easily considered one of Amazon Primes’ best shows , has opened up about why the success the HBO adaptation found was great for his series.
Before The Last of Us , there weren’t many incredible dramas based on video games. This show about Joel and Ellie traveling together during a zombie apocalypse was dramatic, serious and incredibly well-done thanks to Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s leadership and incredible performances from Bella Ramsey , Pedro Pascal and The Last of Us cast . This raised the bar for all video game adaptations that came after, including Fallout .
However, that didn’t intimidate Fallout’s director and executive producer Jonathan Nolan. In fact, it made things better, as he told THR : I was delighted. To your point, when Todd and I first sat down for lunch, the bar was not only not high, it was non-existent — especially in the TV space.
You would have people adapting a first-person game and [a studio would be like,] ‘So the show is going to have a first-person point of view.’ No, that’s a grammatical tick of the game, that’s not how you adapt it. It’s always nice to be the first one.
But when somebody makes something as good as The Last .
