The concept of world-building is bandied about a lot in Hollywood, but few television series live up to the phrase as ambitiously and expansively as Prime Video’s “Fallout,” the lavishly produced, soaked-in-rich-detail production of the beloved video game franchise that even with its epic, post-apocalyptic scale remains deeply grounded.
To expand that effective sense of place established in its debut season, Season 2 called in an established Hollywood heavy hitter from a slightly benched status to make the widening universe of “Fallout” even more real: Los Angeles itself.
“That’s one of the things unique about this place people brag about: In fact, in Southern California, you can surf and ski in the same day,” says executive producer Jonathan Nolan. “Well, that’s not terribly useful for people, but for a film crew, it’s incredibly useful. The fact that you have mountains, you have desert, you have the ocean. All right here, all right next to each other. It’s this extraordinary palette from which we get to paint. It’s an amazing place.”
While the first season shot primarily in New Jersey, New York and Namibia’s shipwreck-dotted Skeleton Coast, Season 2 moved the bulk of production to Los Angeles, closer to where the legions of artisans who labor to give the show its compelling tangibility call home, and tapped an even deeper talent pool to add to it.
