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Amazon’s new Fallout trailer looks just like the games: grim, goofy, and gruesome

At the very least, the show seems like it will capture the tone of Bethesda’s RPG series when it premieres on April 11th — one day earlier than previously announced.

At the very least, the show seems like it will capture the tone of Bethesda’s RPG series when it premieres on April 11th — one day earlier than previously announced.

Andrew Webster
is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

It’s still too early to say if Amazon’s live-action take on Fallout will be any good. But the first few trailers at least make one thing clear: the show seems like it’s nailing the distinct vibe of the games.

The newly released second trailer follows a lot of the same beats as the first, tracking a Vault Dweller named Lucy (Ella Purnell) heading out into the Wasteland only to discover how dangerous things have become two centuries after the apocalypse. The show looks gritty and violent, as you’d expect from a post-apocalyptic series, but also balances that out with a goofy sense of humor and playfully retrofuturistic style. Case in point: a Mister Orderly bot that simply wants to harvest Lucy’s organs. No big deal.

Aside from that, the trailer is filled with classic Fallout details that will make fans of the games feel right at home, from the copious Stimpaks to some impressive-looking power armor. When The Ink Spots start singing “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire,” it’s hard not to think about the end of the world. It also looks like the series will spend a bit more time exploring the before times; the trailer is bookended by a sales pitch for the vaults that wouldn’t be out of place in Hello Tomorrow!.

Fallout is directed by Westworld co-creator Jonathan Nolan, with Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner serving as showrunners. It also stars Aaron Moten, Walton Goggins, and Kyle MacLachlan.

The show starts streaming on April 11th — one day earlier than previously announced. And instead of a weekly schedule, all eight episodes will drop at once.

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