Following the huge success of Amazon’s Fallout TV series, some have wondered whether The Elder Scrolls, Bethesda’s fantasy video game series, might be next in line for adaptation. But what does Bethesda boss Todd Howard think about it?
In an interview with Eurogamer ahead of the premiere of Fallout’s second season, Howard did not rule out the possibility of an Elder Scrolls TV series, but suggested that the post-apocalyptic sci-fi series Fallout would be better suited for adaptation.
“Let me tell you, the Fallout journey took about 10 years,” Howard responded to the suggestion of an Elder Scrolls adaptation. “After Fallout 3, people were asking to make a Fallout movie or show, and we really took our time.”
Howard “can’t rule out or rule out Elder Scrolls in the future,” he told Eurogamer, but he also felt the Fallout series was “a better fit” and had “more to say in its genre.”
The Fallout series is diverse in tone and content. Indeed, season two star Macaulay Culkin touched on this topic in a recent interview with IGN, explaining why he’s so interested in the Fallout story.
“It could have zombies, deathclaws, monsters and stuff like that in it,” he said. “I mean, oh man, you’ve got aliens. Whatever you call it, you can throw it at the wall. Even Fallout 76, I mean, Mothman is fair game now. It’s that kind of thing. It doesn’t really have any shape. You can kind of stick any shape in that hole.”
In any case, there’s no sign of Fallout slowing down when it comes to TV series. Season 3 has already been confirmed, and its stars have hinted that they would be willing to continue playing their characters for many more series. Back in May, Aaron Moten, who plays Brotherhood of Steel hopeful Maximus, said that the “end point” of the Fallout series would last until Season 5 or 6.
“When I signed up to be on the show, we had a starting point, and they gave me an ending point,” Moten said. “And that endpoint hasn’t changed. But it’s the endpoint of season 5, 6.
“We always knew we would take our time with character development.”
Perhaps once this is done and dusted, Bethesda will focus on an Elder Scrolls adaptation. Will The Elder Scrolls 6 be released by then? One can only hope.
Wesley is the news director at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be reached at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
