Bethesda Never Asked Fallout Production Team to Keep the Power Armor Faithful to the Games

The hulking Power Armor of the Brotherhood of Steel is one of the best representations of the game's iconography in the Fallout TV show from Prime Video. It appears that Bethesda never required the designers to copy the version from the games, but they decided it was the best path anyway.

Everyone from fans to critics loved the Prime Video show released almost two weeks ago. Thanks to this overwhelming reception, Amazon renewed the Fallout TV show for a second season.

One element of the show that was well-loved by the audience, both existing game fans and newly minted ones, is the Power Armor worn by members of the Brotherhood of Steel.

The production team decided to faithfully copy the design from the games, from its awe-inspiring size to its hilarious clumsiness at the hands of even the most seasoned Knight.

Credit: Prime Video

It turns out that Bethesda, the games studio behind the popular franchise, had not imposed a rule on the production design team that required them to copy the versions found in the games. Instead, faithful reproduction was an initiative by the designers themselves.

"They never said that [you have to follow the games]. They said, 'Show us what you think it should be,'" Howard Cummings revealed to PC Gamer over the weekend.

However, Cummings said he was aware that fans of the game would analyze every aspect of the show when it came out, so they decided to go with what the games had to offer regarding Power Armor design. Cummings also revealed that the collaboration with Bethesda involved his team approaching the game studio for advice instead of the other way around.

The production designer also revealed they received no design assets from Bethesda. Concept artist Thang Le created their own designs after researching the game and reading the script.

"It was so early on, Bethesda didn't know what we were doing quite yet, so they weren't sharing assets with me,” he explained.

If you’re new to Fallout, you might want to start with the online prequel Fallout 76. Here are five of the best beginner character builds to try out for size.