Chris Avellone Just Admitted the ‘Fallout’ TV Show’s Dialogue Makes Him Cringe
Amazon’s ‘Fallout’ has spent two seasons proving that video game adaptations do not have to be a punchline anymore. The Prime Video series tells an original story set within the same universe as Bethesda’s iconic RPG franchise, and it has built a passionate audience along the way. Season 2, which wrapped in early 2026, sent Lucy and the rest of the cast into New Vegas, the setting of Obsidian’s beloved 2010 spin off.
That connection to New Vegas is part of what makes this next bit of news sting a little. Chris Avellone, who worked on Fallout 2 and helped write ‘Fallout: New Vegas’, has also contributed to projects like ‘Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’. As one of the sharpest voices behind the game’s dense, character driven writing, his opinion on the show’s scripts carries real weight in the community.
That opinion, it turns out, is complicated. Speaking with Insider Gaming, Avellone admitted he feels embarrassed by some of the show’s dialogue, even while calling it a fun watch overall. He specifically compared it to another game adaptation he had no complaints about, noting that he wished the ‘Fallout’ scripts had reached the same level of polish.
Avellone did not stop at a passing comment either. He suggested that some Hollywood writers dismiss the source material once a studio secures the rights to a franchise, choosing to chase their own version of the story instead. He added that writers who have not actually played ‘Fallout 3’, ‘Fallout 4’, or ‘Fallout: New Vegas’ can end up missing context and storytelling opportunities that the games already built out. He was careful to say this is not true of every writer in the industry, framing it more as a pattern he has noticed across game to screen projects generally.
It is worth noting that his criticism of the writing does not extend to the performances. He praised both Walton Goggins and Ella Purnell for their work on the show, despite feeling the script itself sometimes fell short. That distinction between loving the cast and questioning the scripts seems to be at the heart of his mixed reaction.
None of this appears to be slowing ‘Fallout’ down. Season 3 has already begun filming, even as Avellone’s comments circulate among fans, and the show remains one of Prime Video’s biggest hits. Whether the writers’ room takes his critique to heart in the next batch of episodes remains to be seen.
Avellone’s comments tap into a debate that follows nearly every big game adaptation, namely how closely a show should stick to the tone and voice of its source material versus carving out its own identity. For a franchise built on witty, morally messy dialogue, that tension feels especially pointed. If you have watched ‘Fallout’ on Prime Video, do you agree that some of its lines fall short of the games that inspired it, or do you think the show earns its own voice?
