Fallout: Yellowjackets Star Ella Purnell Joins Amazon Series Adapt

Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, Amazon Studios & Kilter Films’ (in association with the games’ producers Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks) series adaptation of the “Fallout” video game franchise has reportedly cast Yellowjackets star Ella Purnell in a lead role opposite The Righteous Gemstones star Walton Goggins. Much like Goggins, nothing official has been released regarding who Purnell will be portraying but Variety reports that ther character is described as “upbeat and uncannily direct with an all-American can-do spirit. But an intensity in her eyes says she might just be a tiny bit dangerous.” The world of Fallout is one where the future envisioned by Americans in the late 1940s explodes upon itself through a nuclear war in 2077. The magic of the Fallout world is the harshness of the wasteland set against the previous generation’s utopian ideal of a better world through nuclear energy. It is serious and harsh in tone, yet sprinkled with moments of ironic humor. Nolan is on board to direct the pilot, with Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel) & Graham Wagner (Silicon Valley) on board as showrunners, and production is set to kick off this year.

Nolan and Joy will executive produce alongside Athena Wickham for Kilter Films, with Todd Howard for Bethesda Game Studios, and James Altman for Bethesda Softworks. Under the terms of the deal, the project would receive a direct series order if Amazon executives sign off of the scripts. “‘Fallout’ is one of the greatest game series of all time. Each chapter of this insanely imaginative story has cost us countless hours we could have spent with family and friends. So we’re incredibly excited to partner with Todd Howard and the rest of the brilliant lunatics at Bethesda to bring this massive, subversive, and darkly funny universe to life with Amazon Studios,” Joy and Nolan said in a statement when the project was first announced.

The franchise’s origin dates back to 1997 and is set in a world in which the future that we sew coming in the 1940s collides with the nuclear war realities of 2077, with Joy and Nolan looking to reflect “the harshness of the wasteland set against the previous generation’s utopian ideal of a better world through nuclear energy” by maintaining the games “harsh tone” while making sure it’s still “sprinkled with moments of ironic humor and B-movie-nuclear-fantasies” that game players expect.

For Howard, having Joy, Nolan, and Kilter involved was the combination the franchise needed to make a successful series jump: “Over the last decade, we looked at many ways to bring ‘Fallout’ to the screen. But it was clear from the moment I first spoke with Jonah and Lisa a few years ago, that they and the team at Kilter were the ones to do it right. We’re enormous fans of their work and couldn’t be more excited to work with them and Amazon Studios,” said Howard when the news was first announced.