Todd Howard Drops Fallout 5 Setting Hint, Opens Door to Big Changes

Prime Video’s Fallout will soon return for its second season, reuniting fans with New Vegas as Lucy MacLean and The Ghoul set out in search of her father Hank.

Fallout is set 15 years after the events of Obsidian Entertainment’s fan-favourite entry Fallout: New Vegas, so we’re undoubtedly going to end up with some form of ‘canon’ resolution to that game’s events.

Fallout is, in fact, the furthest in time the franchise’s timeline has thus stretched but according to Todd Howard, future projects - including Fallout 5 - could be set at points beyond the series.

Ahead of the launch of Fallout Season 2, I had the opportunity to sit down with the Bethesda head honcho who revealed that the studio is considering “the stories really that take place after this”.

Fallout Season 2, Credit / Prime Video

I was keen to discover how the success of Prime Video’s Fallout had impacted the mindset of the studio, especially with regards to plans for Fallout 5.

Howard was expectedly tight-lipped about the longed-for project, but did ultimately refuse to rule out that the next entry in the series could stretch beyond the TV series.

“We sort of expected all those players to come back or be excited from the show,” Todd told me.

“We were kind of ready for that with new stuff in the games, but I will say it was even bigger than we anticipated by several factors.

“Seeing how everybody loved to come back in, particularly with Fallout 76, right? We now have this update. The Ghoul is in the game now, and you're seeing things really from Season 2 inspiring things in 76 as we develop it,” he added, touching upon last week’s Burning Springs update.

Future Projects Could Extend Beyond The TV Series

“But also, the TV show, you know, that's the story that we're telling for this timeline of Fallout,” he continued.

“We think about the franchise in terms of, ‘Okay, well, what are the other stories that might be happening at the same time, or what are the stories really that take place after this?’ And whether those will be on TV or whether those will be, you know, in the games, we sort of look at one continuity.

“But the excitement around it has been awesome. We have everybody coming back to Fallout 4, Shelter on the mobile side, and 76. We feel very, very lucky to have that.”

Could Fallout Directly Lead Into Fallout 5?

Of course, this doesn’t pin down Fallout 5’s setting, but it certainly doesn’t close the door on Fallout being a prequel, of sorts, to the next mainline game entry, something many assumed wouldn’t happen.

When the first season of the show was launched, it hit the headlines that Todd had informed showrunners of several plot points they had to avoid so as not to clash with Fallout 5.

According to showrunner Jonathan Nolan as per a new interview with IGN, Fallout Season 3 will begin shooting in mid 2026 with the goal of returning to screens “as soon as we can”.

I have to say, Fallout’s production schedule thus far has gone against TV’s modern trend of having multi-year gaps between seasons.

It might be interesting to ask, ‘Why?’

With Fallout 5 not expected to land for quite a number of years, what if the plan is to wrap up Fallout ahead of Fallout 5 because one leads into the other?

That is, naturally, speculation on my part, but it certainly would be a great way of engaging viewers with the franchise’s next mainline game if it’s a continuation of the TV series’ story in some way.

Whatever happens, at the very least, we know that Bethesda is cooking up something and asking the question of “What’s next?”, with no setting or time ruled out.

Fallout Season 2 premieres on Prime Video on 17 December.