One of the joys of Fallout as a fan is to sit down and deep-dive into its alternate-reality take on United States history. The lore masters at Bethesda have entire events mapped out into canon, from the liberation of Alaska from the Chinese government to the recall of Teddy Fear bears in 2072 and beyond.
Until recently this alternate history has existed primarily through the many Fallout video games developed by studios like Interplay Entertainment, Black Isle, Bethesda, and Obsidian. But with the new show from Prime Video now available to stream, there’s a new entry in the canon. We know this because IGN sat down with Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard and Fallout: The Series executive producer Jonathan Nolan to talk about how the new show fits into the grand timeline of Fallout.
Spoilers for the ending of Fallout Season 1 and details on every Fallout game below.
How Does the Fallout Show Fit into the Overall Timeline?
Officially the Fallout show is set in the year 2296, which takes place later than any other Fallout game currently released. For example, Fallout 4 takes place in the year 2287, while Fallout: New Vegas is set in the year 2281, a full 15 years prior to the events of the show.
Since the showrunners and Howard previously confirmed the show exists within the canon of the games, that means events in the show have big lore implications for the series. The biggest is probably the fate of Shady Sands, the first capital of the New California Republic and a key location in the Fallout video games. In the final episode of the first season it’s revealed Shady Sands was destroyed by Hank MacLean, overseer of Vault 33 and secret Vault-Tec employee.
Shady Sands appeared in the very first Fallout video game set in the year 2161 and is referenced again in Fallout: New Vegas set in the year 2281. But with the Fallout show taking place in 2296, 15 years after the events of New Vegas, a lot can change in that time.
“There might be a little bit of confusion in some places. But everything that happened in the previous games, including New Vegas, happened.”
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According to Howard, showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet came to him with the idea to blow up Shady Sands, something Howard says shocked him at first. But the event would serve as a catalyst for the main characters of the Fallout show and the showrunners worked with Howard and the Bethesda team to ensure it remained consistent with the games.
“And we talked through it and it was, ‘This would be a pretty impactful story moment that a lot of things anchor on,"' Howard says.
But for anyone confused about how the city could be blown up by the time the show takes place, Howard explains all the details of the timeline should line up. “We’re careful about the timeline,” he says. “There might be a little bit of confusion in some places. But everything that happened in the previous games, including New Vegas, happened. We’re very careful about that.”
“All I can say is we’re threading it tighter there, but the bombs fall just after the events of New Vegas.”
Why Is Shady Sands a Big Deal? Is There a Retcon?
As revealed in Episode 6 of the Fallout show, at some point in the 2280s, Shady Sands is leveled by a nuclear bomb. It's revealed that Lucy MacLean's father, Hank, bombed Shady Sands as it threatened the superiority of Vault-Tec whose employees are still alive, albeit cryogenically frozen, and are waiting to reclaim the Wasteland for themselves and their company.
The revelation of Shady Sands' destruction caused a stir as the location was still standing as recently as the events of Fallout: New Vegas, with some fans wondering if the show was retconning the events of New Vegas. In Episode 6, a chalkboard in Vault 4 depicts the known history of Shady Sands and an ambiguous date for its destruction created some confusion over when the event took place. But as Howard confirmed, the events of the game and show both happen, though the window of events is "tight."
How Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan Agreed on the Fallout Timeline
Howard revealed that when Bethesda first began talking with Jonathan Nolan about a potential Fallout TV adaptation, Howard wanted something that “Would stand up as another entry in the series as opposed to retelling one of the games we did and sort of treat it like we do a game and move the timeline forward and do some great things. And that’s what [Nolan] was thinking as well.”
Nolan adds that the show set out to honor the meticulous and detailed timeline set up by Bethesda and that creating a show not connected to the games was almost a non-starter: “Everyone who worked on Fallout, all the games, were so respectful and so careful to keep this consistent universe. If we’d gone a different direction, the show would be the only thing that doesn’t fit with that universe... We didn’t want to be in our own private corner of an elseworld or a different universe. I think that will be less meaningful to me watching the series, to know it was completely divorced from the reality of the games,” Nolan admits.
What Is the Complete Fallout Timeline (So far)?
Now we know the Fallout show is indeed canon and lines up with the timeline set by the games, here are the key events that mark the Fallout franchise from the first game to the show.
Bombs Drop - Year: 2077
While the entire history of Fallout takes place in an alternate history where the Cold War takes dramatically different turns than it does in our own reality, the key moment that sets off the franchise is the start of the Great War on October 23, 2077. A culmination of the Sino-American War, every nation involved in the conflict was sucked into a nuclear war, transforming the United States and the rest of the world into the Fallout wasteland we know and love(?).
This event can be seen in both the Fallout show where Walton Goggins’ Howard Cooper and his daughter are seen attempting to flee the nuclear blasts in Los Angeles, as well as the opening moments of Fallout 4 where the Sole Survivor and their family make their way into Vault 111 just before the bomb lands in New England.
Fallout 76 - Year: 2102
Fallout 76 begins on October 23, 2102, or Reclamation Day as it’s known. 25 years after the bombs fell during the Great War, Fallout 76 is the earliest game in the series, with Howard even calling it a “prequel” to the other games.
Set in the former state of West Virginia and now known simply as Appalachia, the game stars a Vault Dweller from Vault 76 who sets out to find the missing Overseer. Fallout 76’s version of the wasteland is especially harsh given how soon it is after the bombs were dropped and many of the series’ hallmarks like the Brotherhood of Steel and mutations have their origins explored here.
Fallout 1 - Year: 2161
The very first Fallout game is actually the second game in the timeline. Set 84 years after the Great War, Fallout begins in Vault 13 in Southern California, near Shady Sands and Vault 33 from the Fallout show.
The Vault Dweller in the first Fallout is given the straightforward task of finding a new Water Chip for their Vault before the Vault’s supply of clean water runs out. However, during the course of this adventure they come face-to-face with The Master and his army of mutants who are bent on mutating the humans under his rule.
Fallout Tactics - Year: 2197
Fallout Tactics tells the origins of one of the Wasteland’s longest-lasting factions: The Brotherhood of Steel. When the Great War broke out, a group of military men were bunkered in a Vault-Tec Vault alongside a group of scientists. However, when the military unit discovers the scientists’ immoral experiments, they desert the army, kill the scientists, and together form the Brotherhood of Steel.
Tactics follows the Brotherhood as they attempt to claim the territory outside of the former Chicago, but ultimately takes them on a journey west to find the rumored Vault 0 which houses the United States’ most important government, military, and scientific leaders.
Fallout 2 - Year: 2241
A direct sequel to the events in Fallout 1, Fallout 2 follows a direct descendent of the Vault Dweller from Vault 13 who was exiled and started the village of Arroyo in the Wasteland. Fallout 2 tracks the rise of the New California Republic as well as the organization known as the Enclave, which claims to be the true successor to the United States. The Enclave briefly appears in the Fallout show as the organization the scientist Siggi Wilzig escapes from with the Cold Fusion Reactor.
Fallout 3 - Year: 2277
Set in the East Coast near the former Washington D.C., Fallout 3 starts in Vault 101 and initially revolves around the Vault-Dweller’s search for their missing father. While venturing across the D.C. area, a larger plot is uncovered around a mysterious project to purify the drinking water of the Potomac River, along with clashes with the Enclave from Fallout 2.
Fallout: New Vegas - Year: 2281
Fallout: New Vegas stars a Courier tasked with delivering a package to New Vegas which, you guessed it, is the post-nuclear war successor to Las Vegas, Nevada. However, the Courier winds up caught between a local factional war between the New California Republic and Ceasar's Legions that threatens to destabilize the entire region.
And as Howard tells IGN, Shady Sands is destroyed sometime after the events of Fallout: New Vegas.
Fallout 4 - Year: 2287
Set in a region known as the Commonwealth, which comprises most of pre-war New England, Fallout 4 follows the Sole Survivor of Vault 111 who sets out in search of their missing baby. Along the way, players will encounter new factions like the Minutemen and The Institute as well as familiar Wasteland staples like The Brotherhood of Steel.
The primary focus of Fallout 4 is around a new technology called Synths – humanlike machines who’ve since gained sentience, supposedly after numerous generations were created post-Great War.
Fallout TV Show - Year: 2296
Finally, we have the events in Fallout: The Series. Similar to the plot of Fallout 3, Prime Video’s Fallout show follows Lucy MacLean as she sets out from Vault 33 into the Wasteland to find her kidnapped father, the overseer Hank MacLean. However, as the series continues we discover the truth behind not only the events leading up to The Great War in 2077, but also what happened to the city of Shady Sands and the original Vault-Tec.
This is the complete timeline of Fallout from both the games and the show as confirmed by Todd Howard. With Fallout 5 already confirmed as a game Howard and Bethesda want to eventually make, who knows where the future of the series will go? Especially if Prime Video also greenlights a second season of Fallout: The Series.
For more from us on the great big Fallout wasteland, check out IGN’s full interview with Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
