Fallout<\/em> is a mixture of contradictions. In one moment, the games are dark and gruesome; in the next, silly and playful. So when it came time to adapt the series into a streaming show on Amazon<\/a>, nailing that eclectic tone was key. \u201cI think it\u2019s very fundamental to what Fallout<\/em> is,\u201d says series co-creator and showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet, \u201cthis mix of weird comedy and drama and violence and really compelling moral dilemmas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unlike other video game adaptations like The Last of Us<\/em><\/a>, Amazon\u2019s Fallout<\/em> isn\u2019t a direct translation of an existing story. Instead, it takes place in its own corner of the universe. It\u2019s set in Los Angeles, more than two centuries after the nuclear detonation that rendered America a wasteland, which gave the creators some freedom for approaching the challenge of Fallout<\/em>\u2019s varied tones. Inspired by Sergio Leone\u2019s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly<\/em>, the story is shown through three main characters with very different perspectives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The first, Lucy (Yellowjackets<\/em><\/a>\u2019 Ella Purnell), is similar to a Fallout<\/em> video game protagonist: a vault dweller who grew up in the relative safety of an underground bunker and is experiencing the dangerous postapocalyptic wasteland for the first time. She\u2019s joined by Maximus (Aaron Moten), a member of the militaristic Brotherhood of Steel who desperately wants to be a hero, and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins, HBO\u2019s The Righteous Gemstones<\/em>), a bounty hunter who has been alive since before the bombs dropped.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe pivots were the point\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This structure allows the show to create some very Fallout<\/em>-like contrasts, like the perpetually positive Lucy being forced to deal with a robot trying to harvest her organs or The Ghoul smirking his way through tense shootouts. \u201cIt became apparent to us that the pivots were the point,\u201d co-creator and showrunner Graham Wagner says of the shifts in tone. \u201cYes, we get to do a scene that is horrific and violent. But we can also put that right next to a scene of the banal life of the vault dwellers living underground.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At times, these shifts could be jarring even for the actors. Purnell notes that it was one of the harder parts of working on the show. \u201cIt was one of the challenging things, but very rewarding,\u201d she says. \u201cI almost had to do less and let the writing really speak for itself\u00a0 \u2014 everything is already there and all you have to do is highlight what\u2019s already been created.\u201d Moten notes, \u201cIt\u2019s exciting as an actor, it keeps you on your toes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n For Michael Emerson (best known for playing Ben on Lost)<\/em>, who plays Dr. Siggi Wilzig, those constant shifts were important for reinforcing the precarious nature of Fallout<\/em>\u2019s world and characters. \u201cI like when the heavy is played lightly, and when the light stuff is played for value,\u201d he explains. \u201cThose seemed natural to me, and also consistent with the eclectic narrative of this particular project, where you\u2019re uncertain what the tone of a given moment is, and where it\u2019s going next.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI like when the heavy is played lightly, and when the light stuff is played for value.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n According to Westworld<\/em> co-creator Jonathan Nolan, who served as executive producer and director of Fallout<\/em>, the differences between the two mediums also presented a challenge. Most notably, games have a lot more time to try different things. The first season of Fallout<\/em> is eight episodes long, whereas something like Fallout 4<\/em><\/a> takes at least 30 hours to complete. \u201cOne of the advantages that the games have is that you not only have all of these tones, but you can pursue the tone you\u2019re interested in to a certain degree,\u201d Nolan explains. \u201cYour version of playing one of the games might\u2019ve been very different than mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But even though the show doesn\u2019t have the same open-ended nature as the games, since viewers can\u2019t choose which plotlines to follow, its creators say they used a similar approach to crafting the story. \u201cJust like a player of the video game, we go down paths that interest us,\u201d says Wagner. \u201cAnd we hope that those are shared interests.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n