Fallout Boss Todd Howard Addresses TV Show Retcon Concerns

Bethesda director Todd Howard has responded to fans who have come forth in recent days with concerns tied to the Fallout TV show and how it handles the franchise’s larger lore and timeline. Compared to other video game adaptations, the new Fallout television series takes place in the same canon as the games themselves. While this allows those in charge of the show to tie it more directly to the source material, it also presents the possibility of undoing certain events from past games, or at the very least changing the context around them. And while Fallout viewers thought they discovered one major retcon in the Prime Video series, Howard himself has said this isn’t the case. 

Warning: Spoilers associated with Prime Video’s Fallout are mentioned throughout this article. 

In a conversation with IGN, Howard opened up about the destruction of Shady Sands, which is a city in California that was home to the New California Republic. In the Fallout show, it’s implied that Shady Sands was destroyed in the year 2277, which is what a number of fans have taken issue with. Specifically, the events of Fallout: New Vegas take place in the year 2281 and prominently features the NCR. Some have argued that by destroying Shady Sands in 2277, this would retcon what takes place in New Vegas as that game presents the NCR as a faction that has a fair amount of power rather than a group that is barely hanging on in the wake of its capital being obliterated. Howard himself provided more clarity related to this situation, though, and said plainly that Shady Sands isn’t wiped out until New Vegas concludes. 

“All I can say is we’re threading it tighter there, but the bomb falls just after the events of New Vegas. That’s when Shady Sands blows,” Howard said. “Look, we are tight on the dates, if you really want to get into it. But what’s important is when the show takes place. What is happening in the time period of the show? And that’s what’s most important to us.”

In all likelihood, this timeline associated with the Shady Sands and its relation to the events of New Vegas will be clarified more in Season 2 of Fallout. This is mainly expected because Season 1 of Fallout concludes with a tease that implies the series is going to be set in New Vegas (to some degree) with its next wave of episodes. Because of this, it’s likely that the show will explore more of what happened in the gap between New Vegas in 2281 and the year in which Fallout takes place, which is 2296.

At the time of this writing, Amazon hasn’t officially announced that Fallout has been picked up for Season 2 just yet. Those in charge of the series have made it known that they very much intend to continue the show in the future, though, and other recent activity has suggested that plans are falling into place when it comes to filming for S2. Until that time, all eight episodes that comprise Season 1 of Fallout can be watched now, exclusively on Prime Video.