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You may recall that, ahead of the debut of Amazon Prime's Fallout, there was some debate over whether the show would be canon to the games. As Popverse reported back in April, Bethesda's director Todd Howard viewed "views what’s happening in the show as canon." Now, the question is back, and this time with an answer: The Fallout showrunners have confirmed that the hit post-apocalyptic drama is not in the same continuity as the games that inspired it.

The subject came up when The Hollywood Reporter asked Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner if adapting a video game was a "looser" process than adapting a book in terms of canonicity. Wagner responded that, for books, audiences weren't as particular for details - "Jane Austen isn’t sacred anymore," he said - but that things were different for games. 

"For Fallout," Wagner continued, "We did alter the course of the game’s canonical history. There was a Reddit thread that had to get shut down. (Laughs.) People were so mad. So it is sort of the new sacred cow in a way. That makes it kind of fun to play with."

Related: Fallout: From the games to the TV and back again (including the Great War), the timeline of the show explained

While Popverse can't confirm the veracity of the shutdown Reddit thread comment, we've seen enough disagreement about canon in fan forums to seriously consider the possibility. We did find this thread, however, which was one of several that suggested that the events of the Fallout series decanonize Fallout: New Vegas. The evidence they offer in support of this is a date change the show makes that apparently warps the history of the popular spiinoff, but only problem? The folks who made New Vegas still say the game is canon.

After a Fallout timeline was posted on X (and reported on by PC Gamer), a fan asked developer Emil Pagliarulo whether New Vegas was canon or not. "Of course it is," Pagliarulo said, "We've never suggested otherwise."

So where does this leave Fallout continuity? Well, it's difficult to venture a guess that would be 100% accurate, except to say that canon is a funky thing in adaptations. This is especially true in the world of open-world video games, where canon can be different every time you replay the story. I suppose the best attitude to adapt is that of the thrill-junkies roaming the Wastelands.

That is, that the reality of it all doesn't matter, so long as you're having fun.

Watch Fallout season 1 on Amazon Prime now.

Get ready to get out of your Vault and into the Fallout world - with our help, of course. Here is a guide to the Fallout timeline, how to play and watch all of Fallout, details on the Fallout cast, how the Fallout cast & crew really get the harsh humor we're looking for, as well as a Q&A with Fallout showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner.