One Prime Video series is so good, it even revived a dying genre. The sci-fi genre is well and truly alive on Prime Video. The Expanse is considered one of the best modern sci-fi shows, leaning into the hard sci-fi sub-genre, Tales From the Loop is Amazon’s answer to Love, Death + Robots, and The Man in the High Castle is an underrated adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel of the same name. But there’s another tremendous sci-fi series lurking in Prime Video’s streaming catalog, and it brought back one of the best sci-fi sub-genres from the brink of extinction. The post-apocalyptic sub-genre of sci-fi has never found the mainstream success it deserves. Every now and again, a dark sheep comes along, like Mad Max: Fury Road, or the criminally underrated The Book of Eli and The Road. But Prime Video’s Fallout adaptation introduced a whole new audience to decimated landscapes, questionable factions surviving on barren land, and the nuclear armageddon that started it all. Much like how Game of Thrones turned millions of non-nerds into fantasy junkies, Fallout has made phrases like nuclear fallout, power armor, ghouls, and okey-dokey colloquial terms. The hit series is based on the video game franchise of the same name, created by Black Isle Studios and taken over by Bethesda Softworks. Set 250 years in an alternate future, the games follow various characters in the irradiated landscape left behind by resource wars between the USA and the Communist Nations. Each game puts you in the shoes of a different survivor in a different part of the country, and Prime Video’s Fallout follows suit. Ella Purnell stars as Lucy, a vault dweller who must venture to the surface to find her father, enlisting the help of a merciless mercenary, The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), and Maximus, a new recruit to a faction of tech Nazis known as the Brotherhood of Steel.
‘Fallout’ Made the Post-Apocalypse Mainstream

“Hold on a minute, MovieWeb. The Last of Us was also a big hit,” We hear you cry. While you’re right, that series is more aligned with the zombie sub-genre, as opposed to the broader post-apocalyptic genre. Technicalities aside, Fallout has become one of Prime Video’s biggest shows, rivaling the likes of The Boys and Reacher. Since Fallout, Dave Bautista has made the move to a full-on post-apocalyptic story (not counting Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead) in 2025’s Afterburn. Even Ridley Scott is getting in on the irradiated action with his upcoming The Dog Star.
‘Fallout’ Could Last for a Long Time on Prime Video

Ella Purnell stars in Season 2 of ‘Fallout’Prime Video

Fallout is one of those rare series to tell an original story in a pre-established IP and make it work. As well as giving long-time fans of the franchise and brand-new viewers something to enjoy, it also comes with another bonus. There is no end to the possibilities of where Fallout can go next. Providing the writers can maintain the same quality, the series could literally go anywhere in future seasons. The show already incorporated the fan-favorite location of New Vegas in Season 2, and the various factions that feature in the Mojave Wasteland. Seasons 3 and beyond could venture to more locations from the games or, better yet, unexplored regions of post-apocalyptic America.

Release Date

April 10, 2024

Network

Amazon Prime Video

Directors

Frederick E. O. Toye, Wayne Che Yip, Stephen Williams, Liz Friedlander, Jonathan Nolan, Daniel Gray Longino, Clare Kilner