There are four main endings in Fallout: New Vegas, and none of them are canonical in Season 2 of the Fallout series.
When you had to choose a faction at the end of Fallout: New Vegas, which one did you pick? Did you leave control of the Strip to Caesar’s Legion or the New California Republic (NCR)? Or did you ally yourself with either Mr. House or Yes Man?
For years, fans have been preoccupied with the question of the perfect ending for the fourth major game in the role-playing series. So they were all the more excited when Amazon revealed that season 2 of the Fallout series would be set in New Vegas.
There has been much speculation about which ending will be canon in the live-action world. Now we finally know the answer: none at all.
War, war, everyone wins
In an interview with IGN, showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet and executive producer Jonathan Nolan set the record straight. From the outset, it was clear to the two of them and their colleague Graham Wagner that they would stay out of the canon debate and honor the experiences of all players.
They call their own approach “the fog of war.” It offers them the best opportunity to “sidestep the canon question a little.” Robertson explains:
That was a very early decision that Graham, Jonah, and I made together. Namely, that we wanted to try as much as possible in our series to honor the experiences of all players and all the decisions they can make while playing. That’s why we always wanted to avoid making a single canonical ending the ending that led to the events of the series.”
Nolan adds how exactly the problem of a canonical ending was circumvented. In Season 2, all parties now believe they have won the conflict at Hoover Dam.
We had the appealing idea that at the end of a conflict, 15 years later, each faction could think they had won. In my opinion, there is something poetic about that.
Fans show mixed reactions
On Reddit, the production’s solution is already being hotly debated. While some call the decision “the right way to go,” others are more than dissatisfied. They wonder why New Vegas was chosen as the setting in the first place.
Here are a few examples:
- “I think this is the right way to go about it. I just hope it doesn’t raise a lot of questions about world design and leave us unsure about the state of the world.” – User spiceunerfherdeguy
- ”The question is how they intend to do that. Nolan said, “They all think they’ve won,” but it sounds more like they’ve all lost to a natural disaster that we’ve forced upon them.“ – User RedviperWangchen
- “I don’t know why they chose New Vegas of all places, when they could have chosen from all kinds of settings, even ones with confirmed endings.” – User Jwabalaba
- “I absolutely disagree with this; it makes the decisions meaningless. Maybe I’m an old man tilting at windmills, but for me, the appeal of Fallout is that decisions and their consequences matter. Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong, but this isn’t respect for the players, it’s fear of their backlash. Ugh.“ – User dej0ta
We will see exactly what the “Everyone thinks they’ve won” scenario looks like on Amazon Prime Video starting December 17, 2025. That’s when season 2 of Fallout starts, and we can look forward to a new episode from the wasteland every week.
