Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout series has become an instant hit for the streamer, attracting new viewers and longtime fans of the franchise alike. Based on the massively popular video game series of the same name, Fallout explores a post-apocalyptic wasteland after the United States suffers an assault with nuclear weapons during a retrofuturist imagining of the year 2077. As the characters navigate the wasteland, they encounter radioactive bandits, ghoulish creatures with otherworldly strength, mech suits powered by nuclear batteries and vaults that house cryogenically frozen survivor colonies.

The eye-catching series wrapped its second season on Feb. 3, while balancing a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 94 percent. Needless to say, many fans are already ravenously awaiting a third season. Let’s look ahead at everything we know about the show so far, and see what we can learn about the future of the Amazon Prime original. Be advised that there will be mild spoilers for the Fallout series and video games ahead, though no major plot points will be completely unraveled.

How did some people survive 200 years in ‘Fallout’?

If you’re brand new to the wonderful world of Fallout, you may have a few burning questions about the show’s core characters. Most of the protagonists in the series traverse the wastelands of America’s west coast in the year 2296, over 200 years after the country was peppered with nukes. For some characters, this world is the new normal. They were born into a long line of survivors who just barely managed to scrape together a living on the surface, scrounging for food and trading bottle caps for goods and services.

Others, such as Ella Purnell’s Lucy MacLean, were born and raised in underground Vault-Tec vaults. These survivors are the descendants of an elite few, who were offered an opportunity to preserve their bloodline via cryogenic freezing right before the nukes hit the ground. As the show explores, each of these vaults serves as an experiment of some sort, with its own unique quirks.

Of course, Fallout explores even more shocking survival techniques, including ghoulification. This process sees human beings, like Walton Goggins’ Cooper Howard, undergo intense mutation after experiencing exposure to massive amounts of nuclear radiation. Howard was present at one of the ground zero sites during the nuclear strike, causing him to turn into a near-immortal mutant with a zombie-like appearance. When faced with a lack of nutrients and resources, some ghouls can become feral, essentially turning them into unthinking, unfeeling monsters hell-bent on violence and destruction.

How faithful is the show ‘Fallout’ to the game?

Depending on who you ask, fans seem to agree that Fallout is incredibly faithful to the video game series. Some have even gone so far as to call the show the greatest video game adaptation of all time. Of course, you can’t please everyone, so there are some detractors who claim that the Fallout series strays too far from the video game in setting, tone and characters. The series typically focuses on original characters created just for this project, rather than on an exact recreation of any of the games. Still, some iconic characters like Mr. House have appeared in the series, offering massive easter eggs for eagle-eyed fans.

As Fallout progresses, the show drip-feeds newcomers with information about how the wasteland works and slowly reveals new and exciting sci-fi concepts. Most of the twists and turns can be predicted by hardcore gamers, though the series remains fresh and exciting by introducing brand new material. The show truly shines when it teases new locations and concepts, like when the city of New Vegas was highlighted at the very end of season one as part of a massive cliffhanger.

Where was ‘Fallout’ filmed?

According to People, Fallout was filmed in a number of unique locales across the United States and Namibia, providing plenty of authentic backdrops for the apocalyptic wasteland’s picturesque views. Many of the indoor sequences were filmed in New York City, including those focusing on the self-contained vaults. The deserts of Utah and Namibia were used to depict a post-apocalyptic California and Nevada, with the Namibian ghost town Kolmanskop standing in for the fictional city of Shady Sands.

As the budget increased in season two, Fallout increasingly shot on location in California. If the show continues for additional episodes, it seems likely the production team will keep traveling long distances to prioritize practical sets over green screens and CGI. Forthcoming episodes are rumored to take place in Colorado, Nerdist reports, with behind-the-scenes photos of core characters in snowy locales circulating online.

Will there be another season of ‘Fallout’?

If you just can’t stand to wait for new episodes of Fallout, you’re actually in luck. Not only has Amazon Prime confirmed that the series is renewed for a third season, but they have also already begun active pre-production. For now, there’s no official timeline for a season three release, though it seems likely the show will begin airing new episodes shortly after production wraps.

Current estimates from Forbes suggest filming will begin this summer, with new episodes airing in mid-2027. In the meantime, fans can begin hunting for easter eggs and connections by playing the Fallout video games and engaging in online discussion forums about the franchise. With nearly 30 years of material to comb through, you’re sure to find something fun and exciting that hasn’t been thoroughly explored yet in the series.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was any country not nuked in Fallout?

Though the Fallout lore is not fully canonized in the Amazon series, the video games follow a narrative known as the 2077 Great War. This armed global conflict sees all the world’s nuclear powers taking up arms against each other, with nearly all corners of the earth experiencing some amount of nuclear fallout. While fans have speculated that a few small, isolated nations may have survived the blast, the likelihood of any country coming out completely unscathed is extremely low.

Who is Maximus in the Fallout series?

Maximus, as portrayed by Aaron Moten, is one of the main characters in the Fallout TV series. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Steel faction, who was born and raised in Shady Sands long after the Great War. Early in the series, he serves as a squire to a foul-mouthed Knight, who performs epic feats of strength with the help of a nuclear-powered mech suit. As the show progresses, Maximus showcases his uncanny ability to survive in the wasteland, while learning that the Brotherhood may not be fighting for the right reasons.