Fallout: New Vegas director reveals surprising take on TV show’s lore backlash

Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer discussed the changes made for Prime Video’s Fallout, but he doesn’t seem too bothered by them.

Sure, Prime Video’s Fallout has been a runaway hit, but the Fallout fanbase has already been very vocal about several changes the show made.

Chiefly, the show seems to conflict with story points from the wildly popular Fallout: New Vegas on multiple occasions. Speaking with Rock Paper Shotgun, Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer has revealed his surprising take on the lore changes.

“This might sound weird, but whatever happens with it, I don’t care,” Sawyer explained. “My attitude towards properties that I work on, and even characters that I create, is that I don’t own any of this stuff. It was never mine. And the thing that I made is what I made.”

For what it’s worth, the conflicts are minor, at best. Fallout: New Vegas is set in 2281, while Prime Video’s Fallout is set 15 years later in 2296.

However, the Fallout series also features the destruction of Shady Sands as a major plot point, establishing it as having been bombed into oblivion in 2277. Because one chief faction from New Vegas, the New California Republic, is based out of Shady Sands, fans are up in arms, as it seems unlikely the NCR could have mounted the massive attack it did in New Vegas with their base of operations a smoking crater.

Longtime Fallout director Todd Howard has already been working a degree of damage control, telling IGN Bethesda worked closely with the TV show and that the timeline remains intact. And Sawyer, despite the multiple messages from fans and concerns being directed his way, remains unbothered by the changes because it’s all in the past to him now.

“There are things that I might watch and say, ‘I don’t think I would have taken this that way,’ and then there are other things that I think are really cool. But it’s not my space, it was never my thing. I was a guest working in it. So I try to keep a level of distance between myself and the setting.”

All eight episodes of Fallout are available now to stream on Prime Video, with a second season currently in development.