Amid fan discourse about the Fallout show’s apparent removal of the beloved Fallout: New Vegas from the franchise’s canon, that game’s director Josh Sawyer has weighed in on the matter to say he doesn’t really care what happens with it.
For context, some fans believed Amazon’s Fallout show had effectively removed Fallout: New Vegas from the series’ timeline. Many consider Fallout: New Vegas to be the best game in the series, so they naturally weren’t thrilled about the idea of it being rendered non-canon. Bethesda’s design director Emil Pagliarulo has already assured this isn’t the case, but Josh Sawyer has admitted in a Rock Paper Shotgun interview he wouldn’t be all that bothered if Bethesda made any radical changes to New Vegas and its lore.
Sawyer explained how he was “inundated with the discourse” as fans directly messaged him to air their concerns and anger about New Vegas‘ supposed dismissal from canon. While he does understand why these fans would be anxious about the possibility, Sawyer has personally detached himself from the project, saying, “My attitude towards properties that I work on, and even characters that I create, is that I don’t own any of this stuff. It was never mine.” He’ll certainly have opinions should Bethesda do anything new or different with New Vegas, but he’s not going to get angry over it: “I don’t get attached to things in that way. I don’t feel like it’s healthy for me to be really invested in something I have no control over, frankly.”
It certainly seems like Bethesda intends to revisit New Vegas, with the Fallout show strongly suggesting its second season will take its cast to the city of New Vegas itself. Since the show is set 15 years after the events of New Vegas, it’ll have to address the game’s multiple endings, and either canonize one of them or somehow sidestep them entirely. Either way, I can see some fans getting heated with whatever decision is made.
Any backlash the Fallout show has received so far appears to minimal, though. Overall, it’s been a huge success, with it sporting high Rotten Tomatoes scores from critics and general audiences. Some have lauded it as one of the best video game adaptations ever made. Even if season 2 winds up making a couple of choices that prove unpopular with certain fans, general audiences are unlikely to care as long as it maintains the same level of quality.
